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THE  MESSAGE  OF 
THE  HOUR 


FOUR  SERMONS 


DELIVERED   ON   THE  NEW   YEAR'S    DAY,   AND 
THE  DAY  OF  ATONEMENT,    5651-1890. 


BY 

ISAAC  S.  MOSES, 

RABBI  OF  CONGREGATION  ANSHE  MAARAB. 


CHICAGO,    ILL.: 

E.  RUBOVITS  &  BRO.,  PUBLISHERS. 

1890. 


THE  MESSAGE  OF  THE  HOUR 


FOUR  SERMONS 


DELIVERED  ON  THE  NEW  YEARS'  DAY,   AND 
THE  DAY  OF  ATONEMENT,  5651-189O. 


BY 


ISAAC  S.  MOSES, 

RABBI   OF  CONGREGATION  ANSHE  MAARAB. 


CHICAGO,  ILL. 

E.   RUBOVITS  &  BRO.,   PUBLISHERS. 
189O. 


Stack 

Annex 

1 


Jo-  mu,  wn,e,i,a,<Lte,  Li,i 
m    tfie- 


le-w-  j^a,a,e, 
,e,<n.  G-L    lo-tAe,   <m<)   t 

j.  j. 


THE   MESSAGE   OF  THE   HOUR. 


SERMON  FOR  NEW  YEAR'S  EVE. 


Text:  Malachi  Hi.  22,  24.     '•'•Behold  I  send  unto  you  Elijah,  the  prophet,  and  he  shall  turn  the 
heart  of  the  fathers  to  the  children,  and  the  heart,  of  the  children  to  Ihd  fathers." 

I  Kings,  Chap,  xvii,  i. — "  And  Elijah  the  Tishbite,  -who  was  of  the  inhabitants  of 
Gilead,  said  to  Ahab,  As  the  Eternal  the  God  of  Israel  liveth,  before  whom  I  stand, 
there  shall  not  be  dew  nor  rain  these  years,  but  according  to  my  word. 

Silently  and  noiselessly  it  has  come  and  gone,  the  year  just  past, 
and  with  sudden  step  the  young  giant,  the  new  year,  enters  upon  the 
threshold  of  time,  like  that  gaunt  figure  of  old,  who,  as  we  read  in 
ancient  lore,  often  unexpected  and  unbidden  appeared  before  the  king 
and  the  people,  exhorting,  rebuking,  threatening,  but  also  advising  and 
encouraging.  It  is  the  towering,  heroic  figure  of  the  Thesbian  prophet, 
Elijah,  on  whose  brow  the  grateful  memory  of  popular  tradition  has 
placed  a  crown  of  immortal  glory,  sparkling  with  the  gems  of  myth  and 
miracle,  of  song  and  story,  of  national  ambition  and  lofty  ideals,  of 
undaunted  courage  and  grim  victory;  of  remorse,  weariness  and  despair; 
of  reawakened  hope  and  undying  faith  in  the  final  triumph  of  truth  and 
right.  The  burden  of  that  prophetic  messenger  is  also  the  message  of 
this  hour,  commissioned  by  the  time-hallowed  law  of  Israel  to  marshall  us 
into  unknown  fields,  to  lead  us  upon  the  untrodden  paths  of  the  future. 

What  is  the  import  of  that  message?  Is  it  one  of  gladness  and 
good  tidings,  or  of  threatening  fear  and  gloomy  forebodings?  Will  the 
heavens  of  our  future,  now  veiled  by  the  sombre  clouds  of  anxiety,  open 
for  us  the  treasures  of  life,  distilling  the  dew  of  joy  upon  our  pleasures, 
and  showering  the  rain  of  fruitfulness  upon  our  undertakings,  or  does 
the  twilight  of  this  hour  hide  the  haggard  features  of  want  and  sorrow, 
to  be  but  too  soon  revealed  in  the  lurid  glare  of  harsh  reality?  No,  the 

5 


prophecy  of  this  hour  sounds  a  sweeter  strain,  it  echoes  a  more  heavenly 
melody  than  the  wearisome  theme  of  pleasure  and  pain,  joy  and  sorrow. 
Life  and  death  are  of  God's  ordaining;  happiness  or  misfortune  often  the 
result  of  our  own  doing  or  misdoing.  Should  \ve  dread  the  rulings  of 
Infinite  Wisdom  and  Eternal  Goodness?  Or  shall  we  tremble  before  the 
shadows'of  our  unborn  actions?  Not  our  own  petty  wishes  or  super- 
cilious fears,  but  a  higher  revelation  of  love,  a  divine  message  of  peace  is 
this  hour's  assuring  promise.  Not  a  prediction,  but  an  illumination 
from  within,  shall  this  beginning  of  a  new  time  be  to  us,  disclosing  to 
the  eye  of  the  soul  the  richer  life,  the  purer  joy,  the  unfading  hope, 
which  we  in  the  blinding  chase  after  the  transitory  goods  of  this  world 
often  fail  to  see. 

The  wisdom  of  our  sages  rightly  interpreted  the  true  mission  of  the 
stern  prophet  of  old,  whose  name  is  in  later  Israel  interwoven  with 
every  festive  occasion  and  joyous  happening.  Not  to  settle  by  the 
sword  of  his  authority  the  partisan  strifes  and  the  theological  bickerings 
of  the  times  shall  Elijah  come  again,  but  only  to  make  peace  in  the 
world.  Nor  are  we  left  in  doubt  as  to  the  nature  of  that  peace.  The 
last  in  the  line  of  the  inspired  Seers  of  Israel,  forecasting  the  vision  of  a 
better  humanity,  assigns  to  the  austere  Gileadite  the  mission  of  fore- 
runner and  preparer  of  the  great  Judgment  Day;  but  not  to  punish  the 
estranged  as  on  the  day  of  Carmel.but  to  unite  those  who  have  been  sepa- 
rated, shall  be  his  duty.  In  the  words  of  Malachi  :  "  To  turn  the 
heart  of  the  fathers  to  their  children,  and  the  heart  of  the  children  to 
their  fathers."  Let  us,  then,  listen  to  the  voice  speaking  to  us  across 
the  gulf  of  centuries;  and  find  in  the  heroic  epos  of  Elijah  the  sugges- 
tive themes  for  the  festive  meditations  on  this  New  Year's  Day  and  the 
Day  of  Atonement. 

I. 

"To  turn  the  heart  of  the  fathers  to  the  children."  This  is  the  first 
promise  of  the  prophetic  message  of  this  hour. 

i.  No  one  who  has  any  capacity  for  reading  the  signs  of  the  times 
can  fail  to  notice  the  radical  changes  which  have  been  and  are  still  going 


on  in  the  opinions  of  men  as  to  their  social,  moral  and  religious  relation- 
ships. While  every  age  may  be  called  a  time  of  transition,  ours  is  one 
of  rapid  movement  and  continual  surprises.  Everywhere  the  old  order  is 
changing,  giving  way  to  the  new.  And  the  fact  cannot  be  disguised 
that  the  tendency  of  this  new  order  has  been,  and  largely  still  is,  one  of 
destructiveness  rather  than  of  reconciliation.  This  century,  now  on  its 
wane,  was  born  amidst  the  clash  of  arms  and  the  thunder  of  cannons, 
announcing  in  most  distinct  tones  that  the  reign  of  despotism  was  over, 
and  that  human  right  must  be  re-enthroned.  And  since  that  time  the 
nations  have  been  at  work  re-arranging  the  distorted  relations  of  men 
to  one  another.  Tyranny  and  abject  servility  are  being  replaced  by 
popular  governments;  slavery  and  serfdom  have  been  swept  away  by 
the  reign  of  free  labor.  Commerce  and  industry  have  broken  down  the 
barriers  that  divided  men  and  nations,  and  have  given  to  the  restless 
activity  of  man  new  scope  and  new  direction.  But  such  rapid  move- 
ments cannot  go  on  without  unsettling  many  a  firm  foundation  of  the 
social  structure.  Fiercer  than  ever  rages  the  struggle  of  existence;  in- 
stead of  master  and  slave  it  is  capital  and  labor  wrangling  for  suprem- 
acy. Will  this  death-struggle  end  in  mutual  destruction,  or  is  it  the 
forerunner  of  a  better  time,  a  better  social  order,  based  not  upon  the 
cut-throat  competition  of  unorganized  industries,  nor  upon  the  unscru- 
pulous greed  of  monopolies  and  trusts,  but  upon  the  righteous  and 
peaceful  adjustment  of  human  labor  and  human  ingenuity?  It  is  cer- 
tainly no  glory  for  any  one  to  chuckle  over  the  victory  over  a  number  of 
men  liable  to  be  crushed  between  the  cars,  or  to  rejoice  over  the  fabu- 
lous dividends  gladdening  the  hearts  of  an  idle  aristocracy,  or  feeding 
a  speculative  parasitism.  To  them,  and  to  all  like  them,  who  misinterpret 
the  signs  of  the  times,  the  grim  prophet  of  Israel  predicts  years  of  drought 
and  barreness,  with  no  smiling  heaven  of  social  peace,  refreshing  with 
the  dew  of  happiness  the  languishing  fields  of  human  enterprise.  The 
Messiah  of  the  better  time  cannot  come,  says  an  ancient  tradition,  until 
Elijah  shall  first  have  brought  his  message  to  the  world  ;  and  this 
message  is,  not  to  destroy  in  the  bitterness  of  combat,  but  to  reconcile 
the  Old  with  the  New,  to  establish  social  peace  on  the  basis  of  human 
dignity,  justice  and  love. 

7 


2.  And  even  so,  morally,  the  new  time  holds  diverging  tendencies, 
hiding  fatal  dangers  to  the  higher  life  of  humanity.  The  old  founda- 
tions of  morality  have  been  undermined  by  the  current  of  the  new 
science  and  the  spread  of  an  utilitarian  theory  of  ethics  changing  the  van- 
tange  ground  of  man's  motives,  duties  and  responsibilities.  Right  and 
wrong,  good  and  evil,  have  shifted  their  meaning;  the  sanctions  of  time 
honored  institutions  are  questioned,  and  the  individual  is  left  to  drift  be- 
tween the  stagnant  waters  of  selfishness  and  the  changing  quicksands  of 
public  opinion.  Can  we  expect  the  beauteous  flowers  of  domestic  joy 
and  stainless  purity,  of  self-sacrificing  love  and  lofty  idealism  to  grow 
and  blossom  in  this  time  of  unrest  and  moral  disturbance?  Morality  is 
no  invention  of  the  speculative  genius,  to  be  adjusted  to  every  passing 
need;  virtue  is  no  experimental  theory,  to  be  displaced  whenever  a  new 
formula  is  offered.  This  hour  emphasizes  the  stern  fact  that,  from  what- 
ever source  our  moral  nature  may  be  derived — whether  it  be  inspira- 
tion or  evolution — the  law  of  virtue  is  an  immovable  rock,  against  which 
the  whims,  greeds  and  passions  of  the  individual  dash  in  senseless  impo- 
tence. This  firm  conviction  was  the  strong  foundation  of  the  moral  life 
of  our  fathers;  this  the  secret  of  Israel's  indestructibility.  Not  because 
their  minds  harbored  the  larger  truth,  but  because  their  hearts  cherished 
a  purer  ideal  of  domestic  sanctity,  and  their  soul  was  thrilled  by  the 
august  sense  of  moral  responsibility,  could  they  survive  the  changes  of 
time  and  the  destructive  sweeps  of  human  hatred  and  persecution.  The 
new  morality,  making  simple  pleasure  and  pain  the  motives  of  life, 
and  individual  happiness  the  ultimate  ideal,  withdraws  from  man  every 
stay  and  support,  cuts  asunder  the  invisible  ties  which  connect  the 
present  with  the  past  and  make  the  living  generation  the  heir  to  all 
glories  and  achievements  of  by-gone  ages.  To  reconcile  the  virtue  of 
the  past  to  the  wisdom  of  the  present,  to  turn  the  heart  of  the  fathers 
to  their  children,  is  the  meaning  of  the  prophetic  message  of  this  hour. 
There  is  no  other  cure  for  the  ills  and  woes  of  modern  life,  but  in  the 
moral  rejuvenation  of  the  home,  that  fostering  place  of  all  virtue,  nobility 
of  character  and  lofty  aspirations. 

Fathers  and  mothers,  who  to-night  pray  for  the  life  and  happiness 


of  your  children,  a  holier  charge  is  laid  on  your  soul  than  all  fervid  sup- 
plications; see  to  it  that  the  sanctuaries  of  your  hearts  are  wide  open 
to  the  moral  needs  of  your  sons  and  daughters;  that  in  you  and  through 
you  they  may  learn  to  revere  the  higher  sanctities,  and  to  love  the 
purer  joys  that  lie  in  the  obedience  to  the  moral  law.  There  are  no  two 
editions  of  ethics,  one  for  you,  another  for  your  children — one  for  the  old, 
another  for  the  new  generation.  It  has  always  been  the  pride  of  Israel 
that  a  richer  feeling  of  inter-dependence,  a  deeper  sense  of  love,  rev- 
erence and  gratitude,  mark  our  parental  and  filial  relations.  Let  this 
hour  be  one  of  holy  reunion  of  hearts  that  may  have  grown  callous  and 
indifferent;  let  noble  resolves  for  each  other's  true  welfare  crown  this 
natal  hour  of  the  year  ;  let  the  sacred  ties  of  family  affection  hold  in 
sweet  embrace  those  who  need  each  other's  love  and  friendship  for 
strength  and  for  guidance  to  a  better,  a  happier  life. 

3.  And  more  than  that.  Let  this  hour  also  be  a  reunion  of  minds, 
reconciling  the  faith  of  the  fathers  with  the  faith  of  the  children.  It  can 
not  be  denied  that  a  fatal  split  runs  through  all  the  issues  of  our  spirit- 
ual life,  that  the  edifice  of  religion  is  cracked  to  its  very  foundations. 
The  new  spirit  of  inquiry  and  criticism  has  questioned  the  authority  by 
which  religion  claims  its  title  of  leadership;  it  has  examined  the  records 
and  declared  them  to  be  human  fabrications,  instead  of  divine,  infallible 
truth;  it  has  consigned  the  Biblical  version  of  creation,  of  man's  origin 
and  early  history,  to  the  curiosity  chamber  of  childish  guesses  and  con- 
fused notions  of  the  dawning  intellect;  it  has  scaled  the  heavens  and 
pushed  the  old  firmament  into  infinite  space  and  caused  the  splendor  of 
the  celestial  court  to  fade  before  the  brightness  of  human  reason. 

To  the  influence  of  such  changes  in  the  intellectual  position  of  man- 
kind, the  Jewish  mind  is  as  amenable  as  the  mind  of  any  other  class  of 
people,  nay,  it  is  perhaps  more  disposed  to  be  affected  by  them  than 
others;  for.aside  from  these  general  currents  of  modern  thought,  our  career 
is  beset  by  special  historical  and  racial  difficulties.  The  older  genera- 
tion, though  they  may,  perhaps,  in  theory  profess  the  contrary,  still 
hold  fast  to  a  form  of  faith  which  the  younger  have  outgrown;  they  still 
cling  to  notions  of  special  selection  and  inherent  excellence  of  descent, 


which  those,  cradled  in  the  sunlight  of  a  universal  humanity,  cannot 
share,  can  hardly  understand;  they  still  look  back  upon  the  glory  of  the 
past  as  the  one  and  chiefest  end  of  Israel's  mission,  instead  of  listening 
to  the  pulse-beat  of  modern  time,  and  making  the  inspiration  of  the  past 
the  throbbing  life-blood  of  the  present  day  and  a  prophecy  of  still  greater 
glory  yet  to  come.  No  wonder  that  the  fresher  life  and  the  unspent 
vigor  of  our  young  are  not  attracted  by  the  spiritual  stagnation  of  Juda- 
ism. Deplore  as  we  may  this  intellectual  disunion,  we  cannot  turn 
back  the  advancing  tide;  we  cannot  reduce  the  larger  thought,  the  wider 
sweep  of  the  new  time  to  the  narrower  circle  and  the  retrospective 
vision  of  the  older  generation.  If  the  new  year  and  the  new  time  is  to 
bring  new  intellectual  life  and  health,  spiritual  activity  into  the  religious 
system  of  Israel,  then  this  hour  must  be  the  harbinger  of  the  spirit  of 
Elijah,  the  spirit  of  a  higher  faith,  that  will  turn  the  heart  of  the  fathers 
to  their  children,  and  teach  them  the  divine  duty  of  love,  which  con- 
quers while  it  yields.  Let  not,  by  our  indifference  or  stubborness,  the 
heaven  of  true  religion  be  closed  over  the  hearts  of  our  sons  and  daugh- 
ters, so  that  no' refreshing  dew  of  faith  and  reverence,  and  no  quicken- 
ing rain  of  hope  and  spiritual  guidance,  descend  upon  their  languishing 
souls;  but  let  this  hour  be  the  beginning  of  a  richer,  deeper,  higher  life, 
blending  the  poetry  of  the  past  with  the  music  of  the  present,  reconcil- 
ing the  imperishable  truths  from  of  old  with  the  larger  thought  of  to- 
day; turning,  indeed,  the  heart  of  the  fathers  to  their  children. 

II. 

But  this  twilight  hour  is  charged  with  still  greater  significance;  it 
shall  also  "turn  the  heart  of  the  children  to  their  fathers." 

i.  That  this  age  is  in  advance  of  all  former  ages  in  social  prob- 
lems, moral  endeavors  and  intellectual  achievements,  is  simply  because 
all  those  ages  of  toil  and  sorrow  have  preceded  it;  because  all  the  genera- 
tions past  have  been  stepping-stones  to  the  present;  their  wisdom  and 
their  follies,  their  truths  and  their  errors,  their  loves  and  their  hatreds, 
have  nurtured  the  soil  for  the  luxuriant  growth  of  modern  civilization. 

10 


We  are  children  of  the  past.  As  our  features  have  semblance  to  those 
from  whom  bodily  we  are  descended,  so  all  our  institutions,  systems  and 
methods,  are  the  direct  continuations  of  the  life-long  labor  of  untold  gen- 
erations; and  history  is  but  revelation  of  the  continually  unfolding  and 
developing  humanity;  and  time  a  mirror,  reflecting  both  the  grosser  and 
finer  features,  the  light  and  the  shade  of  the  same  picture  of  life. 

2.  He,  therefore,   who  is  impatient  with  the   present  and   would 
build  for  the  future,  must  learn  to  look  with  reverence  upon  the  past, 
and  humbly  listen  to  the  voice  speaking  through  events  and  succes- 
sions,   through    systems  and  methods,  which  have  inspired,  propelled, 
strengthened  and  guided  the  patient  toilers  of  the  past.    In  architecture 
and  art,  in   rhetoric  and  philosophy,  in  law  and  administration,  we  are 
still  the  disciples  of  the  great  Masters  of  old;  should  we  not  draw  inspi- 
ration and  encouragement  also  from  the  treasury  of  those  thoughts  and 
experiences  which  reveal  the  higher  and  holier  life  of  man  ?     Have  our 
fathers  lived  in  vain,  thought  in  vain,  suffered  in  vain,  and  built  up  the 
great  structures  of  moral  and  spiritual  humanity  in  vain,  for  their  child- 
ren's children?     If  the  advance  of  knowledge  and  the  widening  of  our 
perspective  enable  us  to  see  that  much  which  they  cherished  is  illusory, 
can  we  dispense  with  the  deeper  experience  and  the   clearer  insight  of 
their  prophetic   souls,  giving  to  mankind  its  true  position,  its  dignity, 
its  goal?     And  if,  in  the  persons  of  our  own  fathers  and  mothers,  we  see 
living  representatives  of  that  faithfulness  and   trust,  that  loving  obedi- 
ence to  the  higher  law  and  devotion  to  a  divine  idea,  characterizing  the 
life  of  Israel,  must  we  not,  in  a  spirit  of  humanity  that  is  born  of  greater 
wisdom,  bend    in  reverence   before  their  faith,   enlarging  with  childlike 
piety  the  narrower  meaning  of  their  symbols,  and  reconciling  our  truth 
to  their  truth? 

3.  This  prophetic  appeal  to  our  filial  duty  finds  to-night  a  respon- 
sive  echo  in   our  hearts.     The  festival  we   celebrate   is  termed   in  our 
prayers  "  Day  of  Remembrance." 

They  to  whom  God  has  granted  the  joy  to  live  in  happy  commu- 
nion with  their  parents,  remember  with  gratitude  the  treasures  of  bodily 
and  spiritual  blessings  they  have  received  from  them;  and  those  upon 

ii 


whose  path  has  fallen  the  shadow  of  death,  remember  in  this  hour  the 
loving  care,  the  tender  solicitude  of  the  sainted  lives  that  have  gone 
before  them.  The  noble,  manly  features  of  father,  brother,  or  husband, 
the  beauteous  form  of  mother,  wife,  sister,  or  daughter — they  are  before 
us  now— through  our  tear-bedewed  eyes  we  see  them  all,  and  are  re- 
united with  them  in  this  hour,  welcoming  a  new  year;  and  in  the  solemn 
and  grateful  memory  of  their  lives,  we  learn  to  honor  and  revere  their 
faith  and  renew  our  allegiance  to  the  God  of  our  fathers.  Happy  those 
whom  their  sorrows  have  made  richer  in  soul;  they  who  sow  in  tears,  in 
joy  shall  they  reap.  Thrice  happy  those  who  are  privileged  to  look 
into  the  eyes  of  their  beloved  ones  and  there  read  the  meaning  of  their 
wishes  and  hopes,  trust  and  prayers.  For  them  this  hour  holds  a 
sweeter  promise  than  immunity  from  sorrow  and  pain;  it  comes  to  ful- 
fil the  prophetic  mission  "to  turn  the  heart  of  the  children  to  their 
fathers." 

Thus  we  greet  thee,  with  cheerful  trust,  new-born  Year,  prophet 
of  a  new  time!  Thy  features  forebode  no  evil  tidings;  thy  message  is 
one  of  peace,  thy  promise  reconciliation.  Over  and  above  the  confused 
noises  of  struggling  mankind  we  hear  the  triumphant  song  of  human 
right  and  human  love,  and  our  eyes  behold  the  lovely  forms  of  Purity 
and  Happiness,  Wisdom  and  Faith,  rising  in  ever  clearer  outlines  on 
the  heaven  of  humanity.  Yea,  that  promise  will  be  fulfilled;  the  spirit 
of  Elijah  will  come  again,  and,  as  in  this  solemn  hour,  so  in  all  issues  and 
conflicts  of  life  and  belief,  "he  will  turn  the  heart  of  the  fathers  to  their 
children  and  the  heart  of  the  children  to  their  fathers!" 

"\Velcome  from  God,  O  glad  new  year! 

Thy  paths  all  yet  untrod, 
But  prophecy  and  promise  all 

O'  glad  new  year  of  God  !  " 

AMKN. 


12 


THE   GIFTS   OF    LIFE. 


NEW  YEAR'S  MORNING. 


Text:  I  Kings,  xvii,  2-14. — '•'•And  the  word  of  the  Lord  came  to  him,  saying,  Get  thee  hence, 
and  tiirn  thee  eastward,  and  hide  thyself  in  the  valley  of  the  Cherith,  that  is  before  (or  on 
the  east  side  of)  the  Jordan.  And  it  shall  be,  thou  shaft  drink  of  the  brook;  and  I  have 
commanded  the  ravens  to  feed  thee  there.  And  it  came  to  pass  at  last,  that  the  brook  dried 
up,  becattse  there  had  been  no  heavy  rain  in  the  /anal  And  the  -word  of  the  Lord  came  to 
him,  saying,  Arise,  get  thee  to  Zarephath  (or  Sareptd],  -which  belongeth  to  Sidon,  and 
dwell  there;  behold,  I  have  commanded  a  widow  woman  there  to  feed  thee.  So  he  arose 
and  'ivent  to  Zarephath.  And  when  he  came  to  the  entrance  of  the  city,  behold,  a  widow 
woman  was  there  gathering  sticks.  And  he  called  to  her  and  said,  Fetch  me,  I  pray  thee, 
a  little  water  in  a  vessel,  that  I  may  drink.  And  as  she  was  going  to  fetch  it,  he  called 
to  her,  and  said,  Bring  me,  I  pray  thee,  a  morsel  of  bread  in  thy  hand.  And  she  said,  As 
the  Lord  thy  God  liveth,  I  have  not  a  cake,  but  a  handful  of  meal  in  a  pitcher,  and  a  little 
oil  in  a  cruse;  and  behold,  I  am  gathering  two  sticks,  that  I  may  go  in  and  dress  it  for  me 
and  my-  son,  that  we  may  eat  it  and  die.  And  Elijah  said  to  her,  Fear  not;  go  and  do  as 
thou  hast  said;  but  make  me  thereof  a  little  cake  first,  and  bring  it  out  to  me,  and 
afterwards  make  for  thee  and  for  thy  son.  For  thus  saith  the  Lord  the  God  of  Israel, 
The  pitcher  of  meal  shall  not  be  finished,  neither  shall  the  cruse  of  oil  fail,  until  the  day 
that  the  Lord  sendeth  heavy  rain  upon  the  face  of  the  earth.  And  she  went  and  did 
according  to  the  saying  of  Elijah;  and  she,  and  he,  and  her  house,  did  eat  for  many  days. 
And  the  pitcher  of  meal  was  not  finished,  neither  did  the  cruse  of  oil  fail,  according  to  the 
word  of  God,  which  lie  spake  by  the  hand  of  Elijah. ' ' 

Not  while  winter's  icy  breath  sweeps  over  snow-shrouded  fields  and 
nature  lies  motionless  as  in  death-like  slumber,  but  when  the  earth  is 
teeming  with  life  and  the  kindly  soil  rewards  with  unstinted  gifts  the 
patient  labor  of  man,  does  Israel  celebrate  with  prayer  and  song  the 
birth  of  a  new  year.  Life,  not  death,  is  the  central  thought  of  Israel's 
faith;  life  with  its  joys  and  cares,  its  pleasures  and  sorrows,  its  toil  and 
peace,  all  the  thousandfold  gifts  of  the  changing  seasons,  is  the  song  of 
this  first  day  of  the  new  year.  We  look  back  upon  the  time  that  lies 

13 


behind  us,  and  we  are  astonished  at  finding  it  so  brief,  so  fleeting,  as  if 
it  were  but  yesterday  we  entered  upon  our  career.  How  rapidly  do  the 
events  and  experiences  of  the  past  flit  across  the  horizon  of  our  memory! 
The  dim  vision  of  childhood  vanishes  before  the  brighter  image  of  early 
youth  and  the  sunny  days  of  strength  and  vigor  and  hope.  However 
rich  and  eventful  our  later  years  may  have  been,  again  and  again  our 
thoughts  revert  to  that  period  of  our  life,  when,  as  we  stood  amidst  the 
scenery  of  nature,  we  thought  her  beauties  of  earth  and  sky  were  but  the 
frame  for  the  picture  of  ourselves,  and  life  seemed  a  flowing  stream  of 
plenty,  inviting  us  to  fill  our  cup  with  its  limpid  waters  and  quench  our 
thirst  for  the  unknown  pleasures  of  the  world.  What  strange  enchant- 
ment then  hovered  over  wood  and  glen,  hill  and  dale  !  The  very  air 
seemed  to  breathe  happiness  and  joy,  and  in  the  friendly  sky  we  saw 
floating  lustrous  clouds,  images  of  our  hopes  and  dreams!  And  yet,  no 
dreams;  for  reality  was  fairer  than  all  fancy  could  portray.  How  sweet 
the  delight  of  increasing  knowledge;  how  proud  the  feeling  of  self- 
acquired  possession;  how  glorious  the  sense  of  victory  over  the  first  ob- 
structions on  our  path!  In  the  struggle  of  existence  we  proved  our 
strength,  changing  the  dark,  cruel  powers  of  our  desires,  appetites  and 
wants  into  beneficent  messengers  of  our  will  to  win  for  us  our  daily- 
bread.  As  in  the  quaint  poem  of  Elijah,  God  commanded  the  ravens, 
the  most  cruel  and  voracious  of  winged  creatures,  to  bring  to  the  pro- 
phet twice  daily  bread  and  meat,— so  in  our  youth  and  early  manhood, 
the  cruel  and  destructive  forces  of  nature,  and  the  dark  powers  of  human 
greed  and  selfishness,  are  turned  as  by  divine  command  into  agencies  of 
our  sustenance,  into  means  for  our  welfare. 

But  a  change  comes  over  the  scene  of  life.  The  freshness  and 
buoyancy  of  youth  evaporate  like  a  mist,  the  vigor  and  energy  of 
early  manhood  vanish  and  dry  up  like  a  feeble  brook  in  the  summer's 
drouth;  the  heavens  look  empty,  the  earth  barren,  and  the  hungry  ravens 
of  cruel  want  and  black  care  are  gathering  over  our  heads,  or  follow 
our  weary  footprints,  while  we  wander  in  quest  of  food  and  drink. 
Thus,  life  appears  to  us  in  the  perspective  of  riper  days.  A  lonely  pil- 
grimage from  the  happy  streams  of  youth,  through  the  sorrowful  disen- 

14 


chant  men  t  of  manhood,  to  the  emptiness  of  age  and  the  dreary  prospect 
of  the  grave. 

But  is  this  vision  a  correct  picture  of  life?  Compressed  between 
the  border  lines  of  a  few  years,  is  man's  existence  on  earth  but  a  brief 
dream  and  a  long,  weary  struggle,  to  end  in  death?  Is  it  then  worth 
while  to  live  at  all,  to  continue  this  pilgrimage  to  the  bitter  end? 

The  wonderful  legend  of  the  ancient  Seer  of  Israel,  to  whose  cheer- 
ful message  of  peace  we  listened  yester  eve,  holds,  under  the  thin  dis- 
guise of  story  and  miracle,  the  true  answer  to  the  questions  which  this 
day  suggests;  and  in  his  blessing  to  the  poor  widow  at  whose  door  he 
begged  for  a  refreshing  drink  of  water  and  a  morsel  of  bread,  assuring 
her  that  for  the  sake  of  that  gift  the  pitcher  of  meal  shall  not  be 
finished,  neither  shall  the  cruse  of  oil  fail,  we  hear  the  divine  promise  of 
a  higher  compensation  for  life's  toil  than  weariness  and  death;  we  read 
the  deeper  meaning  of  this  day's  lesson  of  the  fleetness  of  time.  As 
yesterday,  in  the  t\vilight  of  the  natal  hour  of  the  new  year,  the  prophet 
brought  to  us  the  first  message  of  peace  and  reconcilation,  so  to-day,  in 
the  bright  sunshine  of  this  morning,  he  comes  to  us  with  his  second 
message  of  hope  and  consolation,  as  never  failing-  gifts  of  God. 

i.  The  popular  philosophy  of  to-day  finds  a  grim  satisfaction  in 
holding  up  to  the  gaze  of  man  the  sad  picture  of  life,  and  pointing  out 
all  the  darker  features  which  add  gloom  to  ugliness.  Life,  it  tells  us,  is 
not  a  dfeam,  but  an  awful  reality.  Nature  is  not  the  beneficent  goddess, 
inviting  us  to  her  feast;  a  cruel  sorceress  is  she,  deceiving  us  by  her  arts, 
until  she  has  made  us  her  dupe,  to  carry  out  her  designs.  She  lures  us 
with  the  promise  of  pleasure,  with  the  hope  of  happiness,  but  she  casts 
us  aside  as  worthless  rubbish  as  soon  as  we  reach  out  for  her  dainties. 
Behind  her  smiling  countenance  are  hidden  the  ghastly  features  of 
cruelty,  destructiveness  and  death.  Look  how  pitilessly  the  strife  is 
carried  on  in  the  animal  world,  the  strong  feeding  upon  the  weak; 
myriads  of  sentient  beings  cast  into  existence  merely  to  be  a  prey  to 
the  murderous  tooth  of  the  pursuer.  The  higher  we  rise  in  the  scale 
of  life  the  more  accentuated  is  this  struggle  of  existence,  until  in  man  it 
reaches  its  most  pronounced  type,  borrowing  weapons  of  destruction 

15 


and  cruelty  from  the  higher  kingdom  of  the  mind.  But  inseparably 
connected  with  struggle  is  pain  and  suffering.  If  the  end  of  life  is  hap- 
piness, pleasure,  enjoyment,  then  existence  is  a  miserable  failure,  for  the 
pain  by  far  outbalances  all  pleasures;  the  sorrows  of  life  are  more  nu- 
merous than  its  joys,  the  moments  of  happiness  rarer  than  the  long 
hours  and  days  of  grief  and  suffering. 

2.  From  the  lo\ver  sphere  of  natural  life,  man  carries  the  struggle 
of  existence  with   all  its  attending  suffering  into  the   higher  realms  of 
social  life.    And  here  the  question,  as  to  the  value  of  existence,  assumes 
a  moral  aspect.     The  cynic's  answer  is:  Life  is  not  only  a  misfortune, 
it  is  a  positive  evil;  it  lacks  the  prepondering  element  of  goodness;    it  is 
devoid  of    that    higher  purpose  which   dreamy    sentimentalists  would 
ascribe  to  it,  and  which,  if  true,  would  make  it  worthy  of  pursuit.     But 
a  glance  upon  human  society  convinces  the  impartial  observer  that  wis- 
dom and   virtue   are  the  exception,  stupidity   and  meanness   the    rule. 
Selfishness,  envy  and  vanity  are  the  motives  in  the  lives  of  most  men, 
fear  and  hope  the   pole-stars   of  their  morality.     With  some,  inherent 
wickedness  is  joined  to  greater  cunning;   they  are  the  beasts  of  prey, 
feeding  upon  the  stupidity  of  the  unwary.     Purity,  honesty,  self-sacrifice 
are  virtues  publicly  admired  but  not  followed,  perhaps  secretly  sneered 
at,  as  the  characteristics  of  vainglorious  saints  or  infatuated  visionaries. 
"The    majority  are    bad,"    is  an   old    cry    of  pessimistic    philosophers, 
repeated  in  every  age,  but   especially  emphasized   to-day  by  tfte   lurid 
illustrations  of  modern  literature,  priding  itself  upon  the  nudeness  of  its 
realism.     If  the  lives  of  the  majority  be  such  as  depicted  by  the  latest 
novel  of  the  fashionable  Russian,  then  human  life  is  not  worthy  of  exist- 
ence; then  all  the  embellishments  of  culture, —  the  arts  that  refine,  the 
melody  that  stirs  the  soul,  the  poetry  and  philosophy  that  uplift  the  mind, 

—  are  but  vile  hirelings,  pandering  to  the  lower  or  the  higher  passions  of 
man;  then  all  social  life  is  a  subversion  of  naturalness, simplicity,  and  truth, 
— all  is  semblance,  deception,  falsehood,  as  one  of  thp  most  vehement 
critics  of  his  time  has  pithily  stated:  "  We  possess  honor  without  virtue, 
knowledge  without  wisdom,  and  pleasure  without  happiness." 

3.  Nor  is  the  outlook  of  life  more  cheering  if  measured    by  the 

16 


intellectual  standard.  How  small  is  the  sum  of  accumulated  knowledge 
in  comparison  with  the  unlimited  range  of  the  unknown  and  unknowable! 
How  wearisome  and  slow  the  march  of  the  sluggish  intellect !  From  the 
first  stupid  glance  at  the  brilliant  sky  to  the  latest  interrogations  of 
science,  how  much  fruitless  labor,  how  much  wasted  energy,  how  many 
childish  guesses,  how  many  fatal  errors,  not  yet  wholly  overcome  by  the 
riper  mind,  lie  scattered  upon  the  path  of  humanity,  like  the  bleached 
bones  from  numerous  caravans  lining  the  trackless  wilds  of  Africa. 
There  they  rise  in  fantastic  and  grotesque  forms  like  the'  shapeless  and 
shifting  clouds  of  the  starless  sky,  the  systems  of  old,  the  cosmogonies 
and  theogonies  of  the  ancients  ;  the  philosophical  theories  of  later 
schools  ;  the  ideals  of  the  barbarous,  self-torturing  Middle  Ages  ;  the 
Utopias  of  reawakened  learning;  the  maddening  search  for  nature's 
mysteries;  and  the  new  formulas  of  scientific  hypothesis,  claiming  to 
possess  the  keys  of  heaven  and  earth,  unlocking  all  secrets  of  infinite 
space  and  the  twofold  flight  of  time,  backwards  and  forwards.  And  yet, 
with  all  our  vaunted  wisdom,  what  do  we  knozv  f  What  things  are 
absolutely  established  ?  Perhaps  to-morrow  a  new  theory  might  disprove 
all  our  sifted  information,  and  throw  us  back  upon  the  traces  which  we 
traversed.  Once,  humanity  was  as  absolutely  sure  of  the  truth  of  the 
Ptolemean  astronomy  and  the  Aristotelean  philosophy  as  we  are  to-day 
of  the  law  of  gravitation  and  the  potency  of  evolution.  What  guaranty 
have  we  that  these  are  the  final  words  of  scientific  discovery  ?  And, 
granting  even  that  mankind's  intellectual  labors  are  not  futile  attempts, 
not  meaningless  efforts,  but  successive  stages  of  progress;  that  knowledge 
is  increasing  in  spite  of  this  prodigious  waste  of  mental  energy,  what  is 
the  practical  outcome  of  this  knowledge  ?  Does  it  increase  the  sum 
total  of  human  happiness?  If  it  has  multiplied  our  comforts,  has  it  not 
also  multiplied  our  wants  and  sharpened  our  sensibilities,  deepening  our 
cares  and  giving  a  keener  edge  to  the  increasing  sorrows  of  life  ?  Where 
are  the  pangs  of  disappointment,  the  misery  of  want,  the  agony  of 
dishonor,  more  deeply  felt  than  by  those  whose  trained  intellect  lays 
them  open  to  every  influence  of  civilization  ?  If  the  larger  knowledge 
has  given  us  a  clearer  insight  into  the  methods  of  nature,  has  it  not 

17 


thereby  robbed  us  of  so  much  that  was  dear,  and  holy,  and  comforting  to 
the  heart  ?  Whence  do  we  come  ?  Whither  do  we  go  ?  These  are 
questions  that  urgently  demand  reply.  The  latest  wisdom  answers  with 
the  oldest  cynic  :  "  We  came  from  the  dust  and  we  go  to  the  dust,  and 
pre-eminence  of  man  over  the  beast  is  not,  for  all  is  vanity;"  we  are 
linked  to  the  brute  below  and  we  go  to  the  grave  beneath  us.  Let  us 
not  deceive  ourselves  by  the  poet's  oft  cited  wisdom — "And  the  individual 
withers  that  the  world  be  more  and  more;"  for  in  the  light  of  this  wisdom 
we  read  of  the  inevitable  doom  that  awaits  the  dwellers  on  earth  as  our 
whole  planetary  system.  As  it  has  begun  in  time  so  will  it  end;  one 
after  another  of  the  bright  orbs  will  sink  into  the  sun,  and  all  wisdom 
and  all  virtue,  the  moral  grandeur  and  the  intellectual  splendors  of 
humanity,  will  be  dissolved  into  the  fire-mist  of  the  new  world-conflagra- 
tion. How  dreary  the  outlook,  how  vain  the  hope,  how  cheerless  the 
consolation  of  humanity  !  Better  not  to  be,  than  to  live  this  aimless  life! 
This>  in  brief,  is  the  sum  of  that  philosophy  which  claims  to  stand  upon 
the  shoulders  of  all  preceding  systems. 

4.  Are  these  arguments  as  to  the  misery,  worthlessness  and  futility 
of  existence  false  ?  Is  the  picture  thus  drawn  of  human  life  untrue  to 
reality  ?  No,  not  false,  not  untrue,  but  one-sided,  and  therefore  incom- 
plete. There  is  wanting  that  one  and  chiefest  element  of  it  all,  that 
element  of  light  \vhich  alone  will  account  for  the  presence  of  the  deeper 
shadows;  it  is  the  element  of  Religion.  Without  it  mankind,  with  all 
its  intellectual  life,  may  indeed  be  likened  to  that  poor  widow  with  her 
only  child,  gathering  a  few  sticks  to  prepare  the  last  meal  and  then  die. 
What  matters  it  how  long  or  short  the  time  allotted  to  man  on  earth, 
how  slow  or  swift  the  years  come  and  go  and  the  seasons  change  in 
endless  succession  !  The  tide  of  time  brings  no  promise  of  compensa- 
tion ;  the  changing  seasons  hold  out  no  hope  for  future  happiness;  they 
but  repeat  the  monotonous  plaint  of  the  perishableness  of  all  things. 
One  meal  more  or  less,  one  pleasure  more  or  less,  then  all  is  night  and 
unutterable  gloom.  Religion,  like  the  prophet  Elijah  in  our  story,  comes 
to  mankind  in  the  humble  garb  of  a  suppliant,  begging  for  a  gift  to 
sustain  its  life  in  this  universal  drought  and  famine,  this  moral  and 

18 


intellectual  despair  ;  but  its  very  demand  includes  the  promise  of  true 
blessing.  "  Prepare  first  the  meal  for  me,  then  think  of  thyself  and  thy 
son,  for  as  the  Lord  liveth,  the  meal  in  the  pitcher  shall  not  cease,  the  oil 
in  the  cruse  shall  not  fail,  until  the  time  when  the  Lord  shall  give  rain 
unto  the  land." 

Meal  and  oil  are  the  symbols  of  human  enjoyments,  bodily  as  well 
as  spiritual  ;  the  meal  that  nourishes  and  sustains,  and  the  oil  that 
gladdens  and  enlightens;  they  typify  the  whole  range  of  earthly  goods, 
the  objects  of  all  the  longings,  desires,  and  yearnings  of  the  human  heart, 
for  the  possession  of  which  the  race  of  man  has  been  wrestling,  strug- 
gling, shedding  its  blood  upon  every  battle-field,  hoping  to  find  in  them 
and  through  them  the  soul's  peace  and  happiness,  only  to  find  after 
thousands  of  years  of  strife  and  suffering  that  they  are  not  worth  striving 
for.  And  this  sad  experience  of  the  human  race  is  repeated  in  the  life 
of  the  individual.  When  the  few  years  of  his  youth,  with  their  greater 
susceptibility  and  seemingly  inexhaustible  fountains  of  enjoyment,  are 
passed,  when  one  after  another  of  the  sweet  illusions  that  lent  special 
charm  to  life  have  dissolved  into  mist,  and  cold,  sober  common  sense 
beholds  the  realities  of  life,  how  much  is  there  left  in  his  estimation  of 
the  goods  of  this  world  worth  striving  for?  In  none  of  the  things  that 
once  seemed  part  of  himself  has  he  found  lasting  peace  and  happiness. 
Driven  by  the  hungry  desire  from  pleasure  to  pleasure,  from  enjoyment 
to  enjoyment,  he  finds  at  last  his  life  wasted  in  a  profitless  chase,  and  a 
bitter  feeling  of  discontent  gnaws  at  his  soul,  a  sense  of  disgust  with  life 
fills  his  heart;  or,  if  his  be  the  cynic's  temperament,  the  melancholy  mood 
will  give  room  to  the  sneer  of  disdain  and  the  sarcasm  of  contempt.  To 
save  himself  from  the  misery  of  life's  disgust,  or  from  the  irony  of  his 
self-contempt,  man  has  in  every  age  sought  refuge  and  protection.  Old 
heathenism  and  its  modern  devotee  say  :  Drain  the  cup  of  life  to  its 
dregs,  then  fling  it  away;  eat  and  drink,  for  to-morrow  thou  shalt  die, 
when  the  last  remnant  is  consumed.  Buddhism  answers  :  Pleasure  is 
the  cause  of  pain,  desire  the  source  of  sorrow;  therefore  renounce 
pleasure,  kill  desire,  abnegate  the  joy  of  life,  flee  from  its  allurements,  and 
thou  shalt  be  free  from  the  horrors  of  existence.  Christianity  modulates 

19 


these  strains:  Sacrifice  the  body  for  the  soul,  mortify  the  flesh,  deny  this 
world  with  all  its  pleasures,  and  thou  wilt  purchase  thereby  everlasting 
joy  in  the  heaven  above.  Nor  is  the  stoic's  answer  more  consoling  : 
Pain  is  the  inseparable  companion  of  pleasure;  enjoy  the  one,  endure 
the  other.  Be  not  a  coward  ;  what  thou  canst  not  alter,  bear,  and  if  the 
burden  be  too  heavy,  give  up  thy  charge,  wrap  thy  mantle  around  thee 
and  lie  down  to  eternal  sleep.  However  various  these  answers,  in  one 
point  they  all  agree :  Life  is  a  fleeting  show ;  it  holds  no  abiding 
happiness  for  man;  for  his  ills  and  woes,  for  his  sufferings  and  sorrows, 
for  all  the  unfulfilled  longings  of  his  soul,  there  is  but  one  remedy  —  its 
name  is  deatJi. 

What  answer  did  Israel  voice  through  the  mouth  of  its  prophets  ? 
Not  death,  but  life,  not  destruction,  but  devotion,  is  the  solution  of  the 
problem  of  human  existence.  The  magic  word  which  changes  the 
perspective  and  lends  fullness  to  our  view:  Duty  is  its  name  !  The 
gift  which  religion  demands  of  humanity  is  not  sacrifice  and  renuncia- 
tion, but  devotion  to  duty,  sanctification  of  the  world's  goods  and 
pleasures  to  higher  aims  and  purposes.  Prepare  first  this  meal  for  me, 
says  prophetic  religion,  then  prepare  for  thyself  and  thy  son,  and  behold, 
the  source  of  thy  earthly  pleasures  will  not  fail,  the  fountain  of  thy 
spiritual  life  will  not  case  until  the  time  when  the  dew  of  a  new  life, 
and  the  fructifying  rain  of  God's  eternal  love  shall  descend  upon  thy 
mortal  existence,  and  turn  death  into  deathlessness. 

5.  Your  pleasures  are  indeed  shallow  and  insipid  and  are  soon  ex- 
hausted, if  intended  but  for  yourself  and  yours;  but  if  of  the  means  you 
possess,  be  they  much  or  little,  you  seek  first  to  feed  the  hungry,  to 
reach  out  the  gift  of  love  to  the  needy,  the  weary,  the  fainting,  ere  you 
think  of  your  own  pleasures,  you  thereby  create  for  yourself  inexhaust- 
ible blessings.  The  joy  you  plant  in  the  heart  of  others  is  multiplied  a 
thousandfold  in  your  own  heart;  the  happiness  you  spread  for  others 
opens  the  fountain  of  happiness  for  yourself.  Egotism  is  self-delusion 
and  self-bereavement;  love,  kindness,  helpfulness,  are  the  wonder-work- 
ing gifts  which,  while  we  extend  them  to  others,  are  making  our  own 
souls  the  vessels  of  unceasing,  never  failing  happiness.  Israel's  faith 

2O 


does  not  glory  in  poverty,  asceticism,  mortification  of  the  natural 
faculties  of  man;  it  rejoices  in  the  gifts  of  God,  which  nature  at  his 
command  produces  so  abundantly;  but  it  asks  in  return  that  these  gifts 
and  faculties  be  first  dedicated  to  the  divine  purpose  of  a  moral  and 
spiritual  life,  making  them  not  ends  in  themselves,  but  means  for 
upbuilding  a  nobler  self  than  an  eating,  drinking  and  enjoying  animal, 
a  nobler  humanity  than  a  wrestling,  struggling  mass,  engaged  in  a  war  of 
all  against  all.  The  goods  of  this  world  are  the  scaffolding  within  which 
man  shall  erect  the  beautiful  edifice  of  a  truly  human  character,  a  real 
personality. 

6.  Looked  at  from  this  point  of  view,  the  intellectual  labors  of  man 
and  mankind  rise  into  the  higher  sphere  of  divine  knowledge.     Without 
the  religious  idea,  nature  is  blind,  cruel,  meaningless.     Endowed  with  a 
divine  purpose,  the  study  of  nature's  laws  lifts  us  up  into  the  presence  of 
that    supreme  wisdom  which    holds  and    directs  the    world,    and    its 
destinies.     Then  every  seeming  failure   is  a  step   to   higher  knowledge, 
every  contribution  of  the   God-seeking  mind  of  man   a  rich  source  of 
never  failing  wisdom.     In  the  light  of  this  thought  the  individual  finds 
his  labor  richly   compensated  in  the  increasing  wealth  of  humanity,  in 
the  growth  of  freedom,  the  reign  of  virtue,  the  supremacy  of  reason  wedded 
to  love- -in    the    Kingdom    of  God    on    earth.     And  as  the   individual 
man   is  thus  made  an   integral  part  of  the  ever  rising  and  unfolding 
humanity,  so   the  life  of  humanity  becomes  an  integral  part  of  a  large 
spiritual  system,  whose  beginning  and  whose  goal  is  the  eternal  wisdom 
and  love  of  God.     At  this  limit  of  human  reason  man  can  think  only  in 
symbols,  and  the  soul  must  reach  out  in  faith  and  trust  to  that  greater 
knowledge  that  is  born  of  immortal  hope. 

7.  And  even  so  are  the   pains   of  life   transformed   into   perennial 
springs  of  consolation  at  the  miraculous  touch  of  religion.     "  Whom  God 
loveth  he  chastiseth,"  holds  more  than  a  convenient  phrase.     As  in  the 
world  of  nature  pain  is  the  goadto  the  self-preservation   of  organisms, 
the  indicator  of  clanger,  the  price  for  the  higher  development  of  races; 
so  in  the  moral  world  of  man  is  pain  the  divine  method  of  education, 
tears    the   dew   drops  falling  upon  the    dry  soil  of  selfishness;  sorrows 

3  21 


and  woes  are  the  showers  irrigating  the  parched  ground  of  our  spiritual 
life,  causing  our  better  nature  to  blossom  and  bear  a  richer  harvest  than 
before.  And  when  the  rude  hand  of  death  lays  hold  on  what  is  indeed 
a  part  of  our  very  selves;  when  the  hope  of  our  heart  and  solace  of  our 
eye  is  snatched  away  from  us,  and  our  soul  is  left  in  unutterable  gloom, 
refusing  to  be  comforted,  it  is  the  miraculous  power  of  religion  alone 
that  can  assuage  our  pangs  and  lift  us  up  out  of  our  depths.  The  poor 
mother  in  our  story  of  Elijah,  weeping  over  her  dead  child,  and  in  her 
frantic  grief  accusing  the  prophet  of  having  caused  the  death  of  her  only 
son,  is  a  type  of  poor,  sorrow-stricken  humanity,  mourning  over  its  dead; 
she  is  a  type  of  every  mother  and  every  father  who  have  laid  their 
treasures  away  under  the  soil,  and  with  their  tears  bedew  the  graves  of 
their  beloved  ones,  and  stand  questioning,  doubting,  accusing  the  wis- 
dom of  Providence.  To  them,  like  to  the  poor  widow  of  old,  the  prophet 
Elijah,  the  spirit  of  true  religion,  comes  and  mildly  speaks:  "Give  me  thy 
son;  entrust  thy  child  to  my  fatherly  care;  in  the  presence  of  God  there 
is  no  death,  but  eternal  life;  see,  thy  son  liveth."  Yea,  behold  the 
wonder  which  this  prophet  has  wrought  in  every  age,  which  he  is  per- 
forming before  our  very  eyes,  breathing  the  spirit  of  faith  upon  our  dead 
ones  as  they  live  in  our  loving  memory,  in  our  richer  sympathy  with 
sorrows  of  others,  in  all  the  sweeter  and  loftier  hopes  of  our  soul  for  a 
better,  nobler  life. 

These  hopes  will  not  deceive  us  ;  they  are  echoes  from  a  divine 
world.  May  the  coming  year  bring  us  nearer  their  fulfillment.  May  we 
learn  to  consecrate  our  lives  to  higher  aims  than  the  pursuit  of  pleas- 
ure, and  endeavor  to  fill  out  the  frame-work  of  our  existence  with  the 
ideals  of  duty,  of  love  and  devotion;  striving  to  enrich  the  world  by 
our  contribution  of  heart,  and  mind,  and  soul,  and  by  thus  giving 
our  best,  we  shall  open  for  ourselves  the  never  failing  sources  of 
true  happiness.  The  dark  clouds  that  obscured  our  sight  sink  earth- 
ward; brighter  than  ever  we  behold  the  visions  of  life;  golden  the  future 
lies  before  us.  Let  us  not  fear,  but  march  courageously  on  the  path  of 
time,  mingling  our  songs  of  faith,  and  trust,  and  hope  with  the  immortal 
hope  of  humanity.  Amen. 

22 


SEEKING  GOD. 


SERMON  FOR  THE  EVE  OF  DAY  OF  ATONEMENT. 


Text:  I  Kings,  xix,  8- 13.  '•'•And  he  arose,  and  did  eat  and  drink,  and  went  on  the 
strength  of  that  food  forty  days  and  forty  nights  unto  the  mount  of  God  in  Horeb.  And 
he  came  thither  to  a  cave  and  lodged  theie.  And  behold,  the  -word  of  the  Lord  came  to 
him,  and  said  to  him,  What  doest  thou  here,  Elijah  ?  And  he  said,  I  have  been  very 
zealous  for  the  Eternal  the  God  of  hosts.  For  the  children  of  Israel  have  forsaken  thy 
covenant,  thrown  down  thine  altars,  and  slain  thy  prophets  iuith  the  sword  ;  and  I  only 
am  left;  and  they  seek  my  life,  to  take  it  away.  And  he  said,  Go  forth,  and  stand  upon 
the  mount  before  the  Lord.  And  behold,  the  Lord  passed  by;  and  a  great  and  strong  wind 
rent  the  mountains,  and  brake  in  pieces  the  rocks  before  the  Lord  ;  but  the  Lord  was  not 
in  the  wind.  And  after  the  wind  tJiere  was  an  earthquake;  but  the  Lord  was  not  in  the 
earthquake.  And  after  the  earthquake  there  was  afire;  but  the  Lord  was  not  in  the  fire. 
And  after  the  fire  there  was  a  still  small  voice.  And  it  -was  so,  when  Elijah  heard  it,  he 
-trapped  his  face  in  his  mantle,  and  went  ottt,  and  stood  in  the  entering  in  of  the  cave. ' ' 

Into  the  silence  and  solitude  of  the  desert  Elijah  retires,  seeking 
there  the  God  of  his  fathers,  whom,  in  the  tumult  and  turmoil  of  human 
strife,  he  could  not  discern.  Into  the  silence  and  solitude  of  our  soul  we 
must  retire,  if  we  are  to  find  again  the  God  of  truth,  whom,  in  the  struggle 
of  life,  in  the  chase  after  pleasure,  in  the  obscuring  clouds  of  doubt  and 
disbelief,  we  have  lost.  Twice  we  have  listened  to  the  cheering  and 
consoling  words  of  the  prophet  of  Gilead,  bringing  us  the  message  of 
peace  and  the  assurance  of  hope.  To-night  we  follow  him  across  the 
land  of  Israel,  over  the  dreary  wastes  of  Judah,  up  to  the  many-peaked, 
awe-surrounded  Horeb,  the  Mount  of  God,  waiting  with  him  for  the 
voice  of  that  revelation  that  shall  dispel  our  darkness  and  our  fears,  and 
open  our  spiritual  eye  to  the  vision  of  divine  truth.  The  sacred  sounds 
of  the  past  still  vibrate  in  our  ears.  With  that  wonderful  song  on  whose 
wings  are  borne  through  the  silent  air  the  sighs  and  sorrows,  the  prayers 
and  hopes  of  Israel's  by-gone  generations,  we  began  this  day's  solemn 

23 


services.  What  tones  !  What  sublime,  unearthly  melody  breathes  in 
those  strains,  thrilling  the  heart  to  its  depth,  and  awakening  in  us  those 
memories  of  childhood  and  youth,  which  the  busy  experience  of  riper 
years  may  for  a  while  repress,  but  can  never  obliterate. 

This  quaint  Jewish  melody,  the  ancient  Col-Nidre  song,  is  a  faithful 
interpretation  of  our  heart's  unexpressed  and  inexpressible  longing 
for  that  for  which  the  mind  of  man  has  been  searching  ever  since 
it  has  dawned  into  consciousness.  It  is  the  soul's  outcry  for  God! 
Since  the  time  that  man  lifted  up  his  eyes  to  the  starry  vault  above  and 
questioned  :  Who  are  these,  and  who  made  them  all  ?  when  he  looked 
upon  the  earth  beneath  and  saw  the  wondrous  growth  of  teeming 
life  in  its  thousandfold  forms  and  colors,  and  asked  :  Who  gave  birth  to 
all  these  ?  Since  that  time,  the  spirit  of  man  has  been  wandering  through 
fertile  plains  and  cheerless  deserts,  along  the  winding  paths  of  history, 
ascending  the  mountains  of  larger  visions  and  sacred  associations,  and 
still,  like  the  prophet  of  old,  is  waiting  in  silence,  perhaps  in  doubt,  for 
a  sign  of  absolute  certainty  that  its  search  has  not  been  in  vain,  but 
that  God  will  reveal  himself  to  the  patient  and  trusting  soul. 

Into  the  cave  where  once  a  greater  and  more  patient  leader  had 
received  a  true  vision  of  God,  Elijah  entered.  What  was  he  seeking 
there  in  the  silence  of  the  night?  He  followed  the  shining  footprints  of 
Moses,  the  father  of  all  prophets.  There,  in  the  mount  of  revelation,  he 
hoped  to  receive  the  sanction  to  his  life's  work,  his  great  zeal  for  the  God 
of  his  fathers.  So  every  man  and  every  age  will  believe  in  the  truths 
which  their  minds  have  found,  however  imperfect  their  thoughts  may  be, 
and  then  search,  and  surely  find,  the  confirmation  of  their  convictions  and 
experiences,  in  the  world  of  nature  around  them,  in  the  voice  of  human 
history  behind  them,  and  in  the  echo  of  divine  consent  reflected  in 
the  soul's  vision  from  above.  To  the  savage,  in  constant  struggle  with 
the  evil  forces  of  nature,  the  image  of  God  bears  the  distorted  features 
of  cruelty.  He  bends  before  the  greater  power  and  reverences  that 
mysterious  strength  that  manifests  itself  to  him  in  fierce  wrath  and 
destructiveness.  He  sees  God  in  the  storm  that  rends  the  mountains 
and  breaks  in  pieces  the  rocks;  he  finds  Him  in  the  earthquake, 

24 


destroying  the  habitation  of  man  and  beast;  he  worships  Him  in  the 
fire,  leaping  as  a  thunderbolt  from  the  heaven  above  and  consuming 
the  mighty  oak  under  which  he  has  found  shelter.  He  sees  God  in 
nature,  because  he  projects  nature  and  himself  into  the  image  of  his 
God.  The  ages  of  barbarism  believed  that  they  were  fighting  the 
battles  of  God,  conquering  the  earth,  and  making  it  a  waste,  to  carry  out 
a  divine  command.  For  the  honor  of  God  they  slaughtered  nations  and 
destroyed  human  welfare;  for  his  glory  they  burned  the  heretics  and 
banished  disbelievers  from  the  heritage  of  their  fathers.  To  their  minds 
God  was  a  great  king,  sending  out  his  armies  to  execute  his  sovereign 
will,  to  bend  the  nations  under  the  sceptre  of  his  majesty.  History  was 
to  them  but  the  records  of  God's  wars  to  wreak  vengeance  on  his 
enemies.  Every  nation  has  had  its  God  of  revenge. 

But  the  mind  is  not  satisfied  with  its  own  creations.  The  riper 
intellect  soon  detects  their  parentage,  and  disrobes  the  idols  that  had 
usurped  the  divine  throne.  Nothing  short  of  absolute  truth  will  still  the 
craving  of  the  soul.  In  the  collective  wisdom  of  the  ripest  minds  men 
thought  to  have  found  this  absolute  truth,  and  worshiped  it  as  the  final 
revelation  of  that  Highest  Wisdom  that  shines  in  the  sunbeam  and 
blossoms  in  the  flower,  that  rules  in  nature's  laws,  and  communes 
through  the  avenues  of  thought  with  the  God-seeking  soul  of  man.  So 
every  nation  has  had  its  Holy  Writs  and  its  Mounts  of  Revelation.  The 
speculative  genius  of  man  finds  in  them  all  but  partial  truth,  fragments 
of  knowledge,  all  pointing  to  a  still  higher  truth,  which  shall  satisfy  the 
hunger  of  the  soul.  However  much  human  reason  will  weary  itself  in 
the  attempt  to  define  the  Infinite  and  invent  new  names  for  the  Name- 
less, it  is  soon  left  behind  by  the  onward-reaching  power  of  the  soul, 
which  yearns  for  greater  truth  than  all  intellectual  postulates.  For 
God  is  not  the  product  of  the  human  mind,  not  the  result  of  human 
reasoning.  The  soul  feels  that  God  is,  and  that  He  is  the  source  of  all, 
and  struggles  upward  to  its  divine  origin.  All  the  experiences  of  the 
past,  the  God  of  nature,  the  God  of  history,  the  God  of  revelation,  man 
must  first  translate  into  experiences  of  his  soul,  ere  these  ideas  and  ideals 
can  become  truths  for  him. 

25 


And  so  to  us,  as  to  the  ancient  prophet,  waiting  for  the  revelation 
of  the  highest  truth,  seeking  to  find  the  true  nature  and  essence  of  God, 
comes  the  divine  voice  :  What  doest  thou  here  ?  Here  thou  wilt  not 
find  Me.  I  am  not  closed  up  in  the  mystery  of  a  past  revelation.  Go 
forth,  stand  upon  the  mount  of  a  larger  vision.  The  storm,  the  earth- 
quake and  the  fire  are  the  ideals  of  past  generations.  God  is  not  in 
them  now.  Proud  mortal,  behold,  thou  canst  know  nothing  outside  of 
thyself.  Into  thy  inmost  being  turn  thine  eye,  seek  there  the  traces  of 
Him  who  has  made  thy  soul  an  image  of  Himself,  and  thou  wilt  discern 
Him  everywhere,  in  the  tempest  as  well  as  in  the  calm  that  follows  it, 
in  the  destroying  earthquake  and  in  the  consuming  fire,  as  well  as  in  the 
soft  and  peaceful  rustling  of  the  leaves,  making  sweet  music  to  the  play 
of  the  sunbeams. 

This  answer  is  an  echo  of  another  revelation  which  one,  greater 
than  Elijah,  had  received  on  Mount  Horeb.  After  all  the  manifestations 
of  God's  power  in  behalf  of  Israel  ;  after  the  exodus  from  Egypt  and  the 
proclamation  on  Sinai,  Moses  still  desires  to  see  the  glory  of  God.  And 
he  is  bidden  to  stand  where  Elijah  stood  six  hundred  years  after  him, 
and  wait  for  the  glory  of  God  to  pass  by  him.  In  words  that  will  for- 
ever stand  as  the  soul's  deepest  experience,  that  divine  glory  is  described 
there.  And  the  Lord  passed  by  before  his  countenance,  and  proclaimed 
His  true  name,  saying:  "The  Eternal,  the  Eternal,  is  a  merciful  and 
gracious  God,  patient,  and  abundant  in  love  and  truth,  keeping  kindness 
unto  thousands,  forgiving  iniquity,  transgression  and  sin,  but  \\  ill  by  no 
means  clear  the  guilty."  This  is  not  the  language  of  philosophy,  it  is 
the  language  of  the  heart,  the  language  of  human  experience.  This  is 
the  "  still  small  voice,"  or  to  give  a  better  translation,  the  "soft  voice 
of  silence,"  speaking  louder  than  the  thundering  hurricane,  that  silence 
of  the  inward  vision,  coming  to  us  after  the  storm  of  passion  has  spent 
its  fury  and  the.  fire  of  misguided  imagination  has  consumed  itself. 

What  is  God  ?  God  is  Eternal  Goodness,  this  the  first  assurance  of 
the  God-seeking  soul.  Whatever  God  be  to  the  myriads  of  worlds  rolling 
in  their  courses,  to  man  He  reveals  Himself  only  through  this  human  side. 
If  you  seek  to  find  God,  seek  Him  in  the  goodness  of  your  heart,  in  the 

26 


kindness  of  which  you  are  susceptible,  in  the  grace  which  you  bestow 
upon  others,  in  the  love  which  reveals  to  you  the  depths  of  another's 
soul,  in  the  patience  with  which  you  bear  the  faults  and  frailties  of  others, 
in  the  mercy  of  forgiveness  to  which  your  heart  is  moved  by  the  penitent 
tear  of  him  who  has  grieved  you.  What  theory  can  bring  home  to  you 
the  truth  that  God  is  the  loving  father  of  all  men,  except  that  your  heart 
goes  out  in  sympathy  to  others,  and  learns  to  love  and  honor  the  human 
dignity  in  every  man  ?  No  theology  can  convince  you  that  God  may 
forgive  your  sins,  unless  you  have  learned  to  open  your  soul  in  mercy, 
repressing  anger  and  revenge,  and  lovingly  forgive  the  sins  committed 
against  you.  Through  this  experience  of  your  soul,  you  touch  the 
springs  of  that  Eternal  Goodness,  from  whose  fathomless  source  human 
goodness  must  be  derived.  There  is  no  other  way  of  reasoning;  not 
backward  from  God  to  man,  but  upward,  from  man  to  God.  This  is  the 
meaning  of  the  Psalmist's  seeming  paradox,  when  speaking  of  the  mani- 
festations of  God  in  man  :  "To  the  pure  Thou  wilt  show  thyself  pure, 
to  the  merciful  Thou  wilt  show  thyself  merciful,  to  the  upright  man 
upright,  and  to  crooked  Thou  wilt  show  thyself  perverse."  This  was  the 
experience  of  all  the  seers  and  inspired  bards  of  Israel.  They  found 
God  in  their  loving  soul,  therefore  they  could  find  Him  again  in  the 
events  of  nature  and  of  life,  in  the  history  of  nations,  and  in  the  fate  of 
their  people.  God's  love  is  eternal  and  unchanging;  man's  uncontrolled 
desires,  his  hatred  and  revengefulness,  his  unloving  temper,  separates 
him  from  God. 

And  this,  too,  we  find  in  the  deepest  recess  of  the  soul:  God  is 
Eternal  Justice;  his  righteousness  is  commensurate  with  his  love.  He  will 
by  no  means  clear  the  guilty.  God's  love  often  manifests  itself  in  deeds 
of  justice,  in  the  punishment  of  wickedness,  in  the  destruction  of  evil,  in 
the  trials  of  the  best  and  noblest  souls.  In  the  lower  realm  of  nature, 
we  have  found  the  law  of  heredity  as  the  stern  decree  by  which  organ- 
isms survive  or  succumb.  In  the  sphere  of  man,  the  sins  of  parents  are 
visited  upon  the  children  in  the  consequences  of  evil  deeds  and  evil 
inclinations.  Sin  carries  its  punishment  along  with  the  deed,  and 
reaches  forward  into  the  next  generations.  Not  by  any  frown  on  the 

27 


divine  brow,  but  by  the  silent  working  of  forces  following  along  the 
traces  of  our  sins  until  they  have  overtaken  us  and  crushed  us,  are  we 
made  to  feel  that  we  are  amidst  eternal  and  unbending  laws  which  brook 
no  contradiction,  and  thus  arises  in  us  the  consciousness  of  a  just  and  a 
righteous  God,  who  will  not  clear  the  guilty,  visiting  the  sins  of  the  parents 
upon  the  children  and  the  children's  children  to  the  third  generation. 
And  when  we  are  gone  astray,  when  we  have  torn  the  crown  of  human 
dignity  from  our  head  and  sunk  to  the  level  of  brute  creation,  when 
we  have  sought  through  selfishness  and  greed,  through  deception  and 
falsehood,  through  heartlessness  and  ingratitude,  to  gain  the  better 
advantage  of  life — what  is  it  that  indicates  our  wrong-doing,  and  punishes 
us  for  our  sins?  Is  it  not  that  soft  voice  of  silence,  the  tender  voice  of 
conscience,  rebuking  us  for  our  follies,  robbing  us  of  the  rest  of  mind 
and  the  peace  of  the  soul?  No  tribunal  can  inflict  a  severer  punishment 
than  the  tribunal  of  our  conscience  in  the  silence  of  self-examination.  By 
unimpeachable  evidence  it  proves  our  guilt;  for  we  ourselves  must  testify 
against  ourselves;  the  law  by  which  we  are  judged  needs  no  interpretation, 
it  is  engraved  upon  our  hearts;  and  the  verdict  of  conscience  is  severer 
than  death — it  is  self-contempt.  Is  not  that  a  voice  divine,  speaking 
louder  than  the  roaring  storm  or  the  rolling  thunder?  Whence  comes 
to  us  this  soft  voice  of  silence,  if  not  from  Him  who  is  Eternal  Justice  and 
Love,  bearing  the  universe  in  His  arms,  yet  choosing  to  dwell  in  houses  of 
clay  and  making  the  soul  of  man  the  temple  of  his  glory  ?  Yea,  man's 
innate  sense  of  justice,  his  recognition  of  his  shortcomings,  his  pangs  and 
sorrows  and  self-inflicted  punishment,  are  the  heart's  deepest  assurance 
of  God's  presence. 

Go  not,  my  soul,  in  search  of  Him, 

Thou  wilt  not  find  Him  there,  — 
Or  in  the  depths  of  shadow  dim, 

Or  heights  of  upper  air. 

For  not  in  far-off  realms  of  space 

The  Spirit  hath  its  throne; 
In  every  heart  it  findeth  place 

And  waiteth  to  be  known. 


28 


Thought  answereth  alone  to  thought, 
And  soul  with  soul  hath  kin; 

The  outward  God  he  findeth  not 
\\'ho  finds  not  God  within. 

And  if  the  vision  come  to  thee 

Revealed  by  inward  sign, 
Earth  will  be  full  of  Deity 

And  with  His  glory  shine  ! 

Thou  shall  not  want  for  company, 

Nor  pitch  thy  tent  alone; 
The  indwelling  God  will  go  with  thee 

And  show  thee  of  His  own. 

O  gift  of  gifts,  O  grace  of  grace, 
That  God  should  condescend 

To  make  thy  heart  His  dwelling  place 
And  be  thy  daily  Friend  ! 

Then  go  not  thou  in  search  of  Him, 

But  to  thyself  repair  ; 
Wait  thou  within  the  silence  dim, 

And  thou  shall  find  Him  there  ! 


— F.  L.  Hosmer. 


THE   ALTARS   REBUILT. 


MORMXr,   SERMON   !-<>R  'I  UK    DAY  OF  ATONEMF.NT. 


Text:  1  Kings,  .\riii.  jo  jo  (Abridge^). — '•'•And  Elijah  drew  nigh  unto  all  the  people,  and 
said,  How  long  halt  ye  between  two  opinions  '?  If  the  Elemal  be  God,  follow  him :  but 
if  Baal,  then  follow  him.  And  the  people  answered  him  not  a  word.  Then  said  Elijah  to  the 
people,  I,  one  only,  remain  a  prophet  of  Hie  Eternal ;  but  Baal' s  prophets  are  four  hun- 
dred and  fifty  men.  And  Elijah  said  to  all  the  people,  Come  near  to  me.  And  all  the 
people  came  near  to  him,  and  he  repaii  fd  the  altar  of  the  Lord  that  was  broken  down. 
And  it  came  to  pass  at  the  time  of  off er  in  gup  the  meal  offering,  that  Elijah  the  prophet  came 
near,  and  said,  O  Eternal,  God  of  Abraham,  oj  Isaac,  and  of  Israel,  let  it  be  known  this 
day,  that  thoit  art  God  in  Israel,  and  that  I  am  thy  servant,  and  that  I  have  done  all  these 
things  at  thy  word.  Answer  me.  O  J-'.tei  nal,  answer  rue,  that  this  people  may  know  that 
thou  art  God,,  and  do  thou  turn  their  heart  back  again.  1  hen  the  hre  of  the  Lord  fell, 
and  consumed  the  burnt  offering,  and  the  wood,  and  the  stones,  and  the  dust,  and  licked  up 
the  water  that  was  in  the  trench.  And  when  the  people  saw  it,  they  fell  on  their  / 
and  they  said.  The  Eternal,  He  is  God,  the  Eternal,  He  is  God.''' 

Were  to-day,  by  some  miraculous  proceeding,  one  of  the  ancient 
Seers  of  Israel  to  come  among  us,  say  the  austere  prophet  of  Gilead, 
the  fearless  and  undaunted  Elijah,  addressing  us  in  his  wonted  plain, 
undisguised  words,  rebuking  us  for  our  negligence  in  matters  that  con- 
cern our  holiest  interests,  threatening  us,  in  the  burning  anger  of  his 
conviction,  with  dire  calamities  and  utter  destruction,  or  lifting  up  his 
tearful  voice  in  prayer  to  the  God  of  our  fathers,  imploring  him  to  turn 
the  perverted  heart  of  his  children  unto  Him,  or  performing  before  our 
eyes  any  of  the  miracles  reported  of  him  in  the  chronicles  of  old;  what, 
my  friends,  do  you  think,  would  be  the  impression  produced  upon  us  ; 
what  kind  of  reception  would  we  accord  him  ?  I  am  afraid  we  would 
in  this  respect  not  be  "  better  than  our  fathers."  We  would,  perhaps, 
listen  to  him,  appreciate  his  good  intention,  then  turn  to  our  wonted 
occupation  and  way  of  thinking.  His  words,  I  am  bold  to  sav,  would 

30 


not  effect  a  radical  change  in  our  opinions,  nor  leave  a  lasting  impression 
upon  our  hearts.  Some  of  us  would  even  raise  serious  objections  to  his 
ministraton. 

To  a  great  many,  the  lean,  long,  haggard  figure  of  the  mountaineer, 
the  dark,  piercing  look,  the  coarse,  unfashionable  habilament,  the  plain, 
unpolished  speech,  would  seem  decidedly  out  of  date  and  place  in  a 
modern  Jewish  congregation;  badly  fitting  into  the  frame  of  our  services 
and  gatherings.  The  man  to  conduct  our  divine  worship,  and  to  speak  to 
us  the  word  of  God,  is  not  expected  to  be  of  the  Elijah  type;  but  rather 
a  portly,  polite  gentleman,  not  careless  even  of  the  smaller  duties  of 
dress  and  gesture,  unobtrusive  in  mien  and  look,  careful  and  measured 
in  speech  as  well  as  in  action,  knowing  his  position  to  be,  not  a  leader  of 
public  opinion,  not  a  pathfinder  of  new  ways  and  methods,  but  simply 
a  trained  orator  and  skillful  expounder  of  opinions  and  customs  held 
by  those  who  placed  him  there,  and  whose  word  of  wisdom  and  might  — 
generally  the  latter  —  may  displace  him  from  his  honorable  post.  No  ! 
Elijah  would  not  do  at  all  in  a  modern  Jewish  congregation.  A  man 
who  has  the  audacity  to  frown  at  the  king,  and  to  lay  the  charge  of 
corruption  and  murder  upon  his  very  crown  ;  who,  in  face  of  an  over- 
whelming majority  of  prophets  and  priests,  eating  at  the  king's  table 
and  fawning  at  his  majesty,  declares  that  he  — Elijah — alone  is  right; 
that  the  word  of  God  in  his  mouth  is  truth,  and  that  those  who  obey 
the  king's  behest  and  minister  at  the  new  altars  of  Baal  and  Astarte 
are  traitors  to  their  God  and  their  people  ;  a  man  who  could  speak  so 
disrespectfully  of  those  who  differed  from  him  in  their  religious  opinions, 
and  who,  in  a  fit  of  rage,  could  slaughter  four  hundred  and  fifty  prophets 
of  Baal — such  a  man,  and  be  he  the  greatest  of  God's  prophets,  the  most 
earnest  and  convincing  defender  of  Israel's  faith,  could  not  be  elected 
to  the  pulpit  of  the  smallest  or  the  most  ignorant  of  our  congregations. 
He  could  not  get  so  much  as  a  hearing. 

In    synagogues    and     churches    the     name    of     Elijah    is    uttered 
with    great    reverence,    and    is    associated    with    many    living    hopes 
of  the    two    religious    systems.      Whether    in    the    literal    or    spiritual 
interpretation  of  the  great  Messiah's  idea,  Elijah  holds  the  title  of  pre- 
31 


decessor  and  preparer  of  the  way.  In  a  New  Testament  vision  he 
appears  by  the  side  of  Moses  ;  in  Jewish  tradition,  he  comes  to  every 
family  gathered  around  the  festive  board  on  the  eve  of  the  Passover, 
partaking  of  the  cup  of  wine  specially  placed  at  his  disposal;  he  is 
present  whenever  a  son  is  introduced  into  the  covenant  of  his  fathers  ; 
he  often  appears  to  toiling,  care-worn  men,  giving  a  coin  or  a  key  which 
change  whatever  they  touch  into  genuine  gold,  or  teaching  them  a 
simple  word  which,  uttered  at  the  right  time,  turns  the  tears  of  grief  into 
pearls  of  happiness.  And  still,  I  hold,  were  this  same  Elijah  to  come 
among  us,  living,  speaking,  acting  in  accordance  with  his  character,  he 
would  find  himself  confronted  by  the  same  difficulties  which  he  found  in 
the  days  of  Ahab.  No  doubt,  to  the  "  gentlemen  "  in  Samaria,  the  wild 
preacher  from  Gilead  was  a  most  repulsive  sight  ;  to  their  refined  taste, 
his  growling,  thundering  voice  was  very  unsympathetic;  his  denuncia- 
tions coarse  and  untimely.  They  preferred  the  smoother  eloquence  of 
the  royal  prophets,  and  the  sweet,  enchanting  music  coming  from  the 
lips  of  Astarte's  priestesses.  But,  friends,  we  need  have  no  fear  that 
Elijah  will  ever  come  to  frighten  or  to  fret  us  with  his  presence;  he  will  not 
intrude  upon  our  well-regulated  system  of  worship,  nor  offend  our  cul- 
ture by  his  rude  speech. 

Whether  Elijah  ever  lived  at  all,  is  a  disputable  question  among 
scholars  ;  but  if  he  did,  he  quitted  the  scene  of  life  over  twenty- 
seven  hundred  years  ago,  and  is  not  likely  to  be  in  a  position  for 
itinerant  preaching.  Even  should  we  believe  in  the  literal  word  of  the 
Bible,  that  Elijah  was  taken  up  by  a  fiery  team  and  in  body  ascended  to 
heaven,  it  is  not  at  all  probable  that,  remembering  the  sad  experiences 
of  the  past,  and  foreseeing  the  poor  result  of  his  work  among  us,  he 
should  leave  his  serene  home,  and  undertake  a  new  journey  to  the  earth. 
So  let  us  dissuade  our  minds  from  any  anxiety  on  that  point.  Neither 
Elijah,  nor  any  of  the  old  thundering  prophets,  will  trouble  us  to-day. 

And  yet  I  assure  you,  though  Elijah  is  dead,  and  the  prophets  that 
lived  after  him  are  dead  also,  one  prophet  is  here  among  us  who  thinks, 
and  feels,  and  speaks  with  the  soul  of  Elijah,  one  who  with  the  courage  and 
fearlessness  of  the  prophets  of  old,  cries  to  us  in  accents  not  to  be  over- 

32 


heard  or  misunderstood,  appeals  to  us  in  words  that  burn  like  leaping 
flames  into  our  souls,  chastising  us  for  our  sins  and  follies,  and  calling  us 
back  to  our  duty  to  our  God  and  to  the  religion  of  our  fathers.  It  is 
none  else  than  the  Day  of  Atonement  itself!  This  day  comes  to  us,  indeed, 
like  the  prophet  Elijah,  plain,  old  fashioned,  sombre  looking,  unyielding, 
uncompromising.  What  it  tells  are  not  festive  congratulations;  it  is  not 
a  day  of  gladness,  but  of  deep,  earnest  self-examination.  Of  all  the  festivals 
and  sacred  days  of  Israel,  this  day  alone  has  retained  its  original 
character;  with  Elijah  it  says:  I  alone  have  remained  a  true  prophet  of 
God  !  It  has  not  yielded  to  the  pressure  of  the  times,  and  refuses  to  be 
"reformed."  As  a  true  prophet,  it  brings  its  heavenly  message  of  warn- 
ing to  rich  and  poor,  high  or  low,  without  fear  or  favor,  and  challenges 
us  to. a  test  between  the  results  of  true  religion  and  the  beguiling 
influence  of  make-belief  and  self-deception.  As  yet,  this  prophet  has 
never  spoken  in  vain;  year  after  year  it  has  aroused  in  us  holier  feelings 
and  noble  resolves,  and  often  has  brought  us  back  to  our  better  selves. 
Let  me,  to-day,  be  its  interpreter;  let  me  speak  to  you  in  plain,  earnest, 
undisguised  words  of  the  sins  and  evils  we  have  committed,  let  me  plead 
to  you  in  the  name  of  Him,  before  whom  falsehood  cannot  stand,  and 
deception  cannot  abide.  Oh,  that  I  had  the  power  of  Elijah  to  call  down 
the  heavenly  fire  of  true  conviction  upon  the  altar  of  your  hearts,  that  I 
could  shame  into  silence  the  false  prophets— carelessness,  selfcomplai- 
sance, cowardice, time-serving,  greed  and  stupidity — that  step  between  you 
and  your  God  to  lead  you  away  from  the  religion  of  your  fathers  !  Alas, 
mine  is  but  the  weak  word,  quickly  spoken  and  soon  forgotten  !  And 
yet  I  trust  that  God  will  bless  this  word  of  mine  that  it  shall  not  return 
empty,  but  shall  bring  to  pass  that  for  which  it  was  sent.  Oh  my  God, 
strenghten  me  for  this  work,  and  take  away  from  my  eyes  the  fear  of 
man,  and  let  thy  truth  alone  and  the  thought  of  thy  presence  guide  me 
in  this  hour  ! 

i.  To  the  prophets  of  old  religion  was  not  a  matter  of  tradition  or 
conventionality,  far  less  was  it  to  them  a  matter  of  business  or  policy,  as 
it  was  to  the  priests  or  kings.  With  them  religion  was  the  deepest  and 

33 


most  conclusive  of  all  convictions,  it  was  life  itself.  God,  to  their  minds, 
was  not  a  term  for  an  indefinite  religious  aspiration,  but  the  life  of  their 
life,  the  soul  of  their  soul.  Their  very  occupation  and  name  became  to 
them  symbols  of  their  divine  mission.  Elijah  means :  My  God  is 
Jehovah,  the  Eternal,  I  know  no  other.  To  him  I  have  devoted  my  life, 
my  powers.  This  name  stands  as  the  type  of  all  prophets  of  Israel, 
before  and  after  Elijah.  They  were  all  men  of  thorough-going  conviction; 
their  faith  in  the  God  of  Israel  did  not  rest  upon  popular  assent,  but  was 
a  direct  voice  speaking  to  them  through  their  own  consciousness.  Such 
men  are  always  in  the  minority.  The  true  people  of  Israel  have  always 
been  few  in  number.  The  masses  are  not  moved  by  conviction,  but  by 
convenience;  their  God  is  not  Jehovah,  the  Invisible,  the  Eternal,  whose 
law  is  unyielding  truth,  whose  service  is  uncompromising  devotjon  to 
duty,  whose  nature  is  unchanging  love,  justice  and  holiness;  but  Baal, 
the  visible  deity,  whose  symbol  is  the  sun,  now  smiling  in  friendly  rays, 
now  hidden  behind  obscuring  clouds,  to-day  kissing  the  flowers  out  of 
their  sleep,  to-morrow  parching  up  field  and  meadow,  that  all  creatures 
languish  for  thirst—  a  type  of  that  idol  worshiped  at  all  times  by  the 
masses,  the  idol  called:  Public  Opinion.  The  masses  are  swayed  by  the 
outlook  of  temporal  prosperity;  they  bend  the  knee  before  the  success- 
ful hero  ;  they  praise  the  victorious  conqueror.  Let  the  tide  of  fate 
s\\  cep  against  them,  and  the  loudest  praises  quickly  change  into  public 
accusations.  He  who  yesterday  knelt  in  reverence  before  the  child  of 
fortune,  will  to-day,  when  the  sun  of  luck  no  more  smiles  upon  it,  be  the 
first  to  strangle  it,  if  by  this  act  he  may  win  the  favor  of  the  new  powers 
that  be.  Public  opinion  is  no  gauge  of  the  worth  of  a  man;  it  is  not  the 
measure  of  value  of  principles  or  institutions;  it  is  no  criterion  of  truth  or 
right.  "The  voice  of  the  people  is  the  voice  of  God,"  is  one  of  those 
favorite  catchwords  skillfully  employed  by  demagogues  to  tickle  the 
long  ears  of  his  sovereign  majesty — the  Public.  One  man  with  the  con- 
viction of  truth  in  his  heart  is  a  majority,  and  his  voice  is  the  voice  of 
God.  And  when  his  words  fall  like  thunderbolts  upon  the  torpid  souls 
of  the  massees,  awakening  into  consciousness  whatever  there  is  yet  in 
them  that  is  divine,  and  thus  morally  forcing  their  assent  to  his  con- 

34 


victions,  then,  and   then  only,  the  voice  of  the  people  becomes  the  voice 
of  God. 

2.  This  spiritual  fact  is  the  key  to  the  right  understanding,  not  only 
of  the   activity  of  Israel's   prophets,  but   to  the   great    question   of  the 
Mission  of  Israel. 

What  is  the  meaning  and  purpose  of  Israel's  existence,  what  is  the 
position  he  occupies  in  the  life  of  the  nations,  what  is  his  destiny  in  the 
larger  kingdom  of  the  spiritual  life  of  humanity?  The  prophets  of  old, 
as  well  as  the  best  and  noblest  minds  of  the  people,  conceived  this 
mission  to  be  at  all  times  a  divine  one.  Israel  is  to  be  a  people  of  God, 
that  is,  his  mission  is  to  historically  body  forth  those  religious  ideas 
which  constitute  mankind's  true  dignity  and  wealth;  developing  upon  the 
basis  of  his  national  life  those  laws,  institutions,  and  ideals  which  have 
given  value  and  direction  to  the  higher  life  of  humanity.  That  this  was.his 
divinely  appointed  mission,  and  not  the  result  of  accidental  combina- 
tions, that  Israel  did  not  happily  or  unhappily  blunder  into  his  true 
vocation,  but  was  purposely  led,  nay  often  forced,  upon  his  line  of  action, 
is  testified  by  every  page  of  his  wonderful  history.  To  many  a  nation 
of  antiquity  the  thought  of  its  mission  dawned  when  its  history  had 
closed;  but  Israel's  history  begins  with  a  clear  outline  of  his  divine 
calling.  The  true,  the  ideal  Israel,  though  constituting  but  a  minority 
of  the  people,  always  thought,  felt,  and  acted  in  the  spirit  implied  in  the 
name,  Elijah:  "My  God  is  Jehovah;  I  am  sent  into  this  world  to  pro- 
claim his  truth,  to  preach  his  holiness,  to  testify  of  his  righteousness,  to 
spread  the  knowledge  of  his  justice  and  love,  to  teach  the  nations  the 
fatherheacl  of  God  and  the  brotherhood  of  man,  to  build  up  the  kingdom 
of  God  on  earth." 

3.  Not  so   did   this   mission  appear  to  the  majority  of  the  people, 
their  leaders,  priests  and  kings.     To   them   the  worldly  welfare  was  the 
first  concern.     To   be   a  strong,  prosperous  nation,  to  push  the  border 
lines  of  the  country  far  into  the  neighboring  kingdoms  ;   to  build  strong 
cities,  stud  the  mountains  with  fortresses,  and  crown  the  hills  with  royal 
palaces  and  stately  temples, —  was  the  ambition  of  those  who,  through 
popular  favor,  treachery,  rebellion,  or  the   massacre   of  dynasties,   held 

35 


the  reins  of  government.  To  them  the  religion  of  Israel  was  but  a  part 
of  the  state  machinery,  and  Jehovah,  the  God  of  Israel,  stood  on  a  par 
with  all  other  respectable  or  disrespectable  deities  of  the  surrounding 
heathen  nations.  To  win  their  favor,  and  the  political  alliance  of  the 
people  who  worshiped  them,  was  considered  an  act  of  prudence  and 
statescraft.  Baal  and  Jehovah  were  all  the  same  to  them,  if  but  by  the 
change  some  profit  was  visible,  new  conquests,  better  times,  new  markets 
for  Israelitish  goods,  honors  at  foreign  courts ;  or,  to  the  stupid  majority, 
the  outlook  for  a  good  harvest  or  immunity  from  prevailing  sickness. 

Against  such  treachery  and  faithlessness  toward  the  inmost  life  of 
Israel  the  prophets  protested  most  vehemently,  even  at  the  risk  ot  their 
own  lives — and  not  in  vain.  Before  their  thundering  voices  the  thrones 
of  idolatrous  kings  trembled,  and  the  walls  of  their  palaces  sunk  into 
ruins.  This  inward  conflict  between  the  ideal  interests  of  the  people 
and  the  question  of  material  welfare  could  end  but  in  the  destruction  of 
the  Iraelitish  commonwealth.  Yea,  the  great  zeal  of  the  prophets  for 
the  purity  of  the  religion  of  Israel,  for  the  ideal  life  of  the  people,  was 
the  direct  cause  of  the  total  annihilation  of  the  Jewish  State.  They 
killed  the  body  that  the  soul  might  live.  What  would  have  been  the  fate 
of  the  people  without  these  uncompromising  upholders  of  the  ideal 
mission  of  Israel  ?  If  the  policy  of  their  kings  had  obtained,  the  nation 
might  have  existed  a  few  hundred  years  longer;  the  princes  would  have 
built  some  more  palaces,  filled  their  stables  with  more  horses,  their 
courts  with  more  slaves,  their  harems  with  the  daughters  of  many 
nations;  the  nobles  and  grandees  would  have  enjoyed  more  gorgeous 
feasts,  the  priests  would  have  continued  tor  some  time  longer  to  slaughter 
victims,  and  unctiously  sprinkle  their  blood  upon  the  altars,  to  swing 
the  censer  with  grace  and  dignity,  and  with  well-trained,  melodious 
voice  utter  the  prescribed  benediction.  Israel's  merchants  would  have 
carried  on  much  longer  a  successful  and  profitable  business  with  Tyre, 
Sydon,  Egypt  and  Babylon.  But  the  religion  of  Israel  would  have  been 
stifled  by  this  material  prosperity.  The  God  of  hosts  would  have  lost 
his  identity  among  the  host  of  gods,  and  Israel  would  have  shared  the 
fate  of  those  very  nations  whose  beliefs,  customs  and  laws  they  were  so 

36 


eager  to  accept.  Through  the  loss  of  his  political  existence,  Israel  has 
saved  his  soul  alive,  and  has  become,  by  the  very  martyrdom  which  he 
had  to  endure,  the  Savior,  the  Messiah,  of  humanity,  the  mediator 
between  God  and  man.  The  soul  of  Israel  is  his  religion,  which,  in  one 
form  or  another,  is  now  the  animating  spiritual  force  in  the  life  of  the 
civilized  nations  of  the  earth. 

4.  Nor  is  this  mission  of  Israel,  to  be  the  prophet  of  true  religion, 
ended   in   our  time,  though  some  of  the  fundamental  principles  of  his 
faith  have  been  universally  accepted.     The  last  word  of  Israel  has  not 
yet  been  spoken;  Judaism,  Christianity,  Mohammedanism,  are  not  final 
truths,  but  phases  of  his  spiritual  life.     The  religion  of  humanity,  the 
all-embracing  faith  of  an  Universal  Religion  is  yet  to  come,  and  as  of  old, 
Israel  is  the  Elijah,  the  forerunner  and  preparer  of  that  great  messianic 
time — out  of  the  soul-life  of  Israel  must  that  future  religion  of  humanity 
be  born.     This  is  no  dream,  nor  proud  self-exultation,  nor  the  vaunt  of 
despair — it  is  the  verdict  of  history  as  well  as  of  faith.     Of  all  the  nations 
of  antiquity,  before  and   after  Israel's  appearance   in  history,  none  has 
survived  a  certain  period  of  time.     Within  the  limits  of  a  few  hundred 
years  the  proudest  and  most    powerful   nations   had    exhausted   their 
productive  genius;  they  gave  their  contribution  to  the  wealth  of  human- 
ity, and  then  disappeared  from  the  face  of  the  earth.     Their  mission  was 
ended.     New  nations  sprang  up  in  their  stead,  to  take  up  the  task  of 
humanity,  to  labor  at  the  solution  of  some  new  problems,  and  to  con- 
tribute their  share  to  the  larger  life  of  mankind.     But^all  along  the  line 
of  history  we  see  Israel  continue  his  life-work.     Deprived  of  his  national 
independence,  twice  exiled  and  robbed  of  his  rights,  driven  from  land  to 
land,  and  proclaimed  an  alien  wherever  he  set  his  weary  foot,  plundered, 
tortured,  burned,  massacred,  on  account  of  his  faith,  Israel  could  not  be 
destroyed,  but  still  exists,  and  is  to-day  as  numerous  as  he  has  ever  been 
in  the  days  of  his  kings!     What  truth  does  his  historical  exception  teach 
us  ?     What  else,  but  the   divine   lesson   that   Israel's  mission   is  not  yet 
ended,  that   his   presence    is   still   needed    as   an    essential  element  of 
humanity  ? 

5.  Applying  these   truths  to  our  own  wants  and  the  problem  oi 

s  37 


to-day,  the  question  comes  home  to  us  with  double  force:  What  are 
we  ?  If  not  a  Religions  Community,  inspired  by  the  life-mission  of 
Israel,  what  place  do  we  hold  in  the  organic  life  of  modern  nations  ?  It 
is  not  difficult  to  find  the  answer,  though  it  be  humiliating  to  our  self-love. 
Then  there  is  no  room  for  Israel  on  this  earth!  Then  we  stand  on  a 
level  with  the  Gypsies  or  some  other  wandering  tribes  who  have  out- 
lived the  mission  of  their  people,  and  who,  in  smaller  or  larger  numbers, 
present  the  painful  spectacle  of  a  degraded  race.  The  irreligious  Jew,  the 
Jewish  atheist,  is  an  anomaly,  an  historical  self-contradiction.  To  claim 
superiority  on  the  strength  of  some  racial  differences  and  distinctions  ; 
to  boast  of  the  keenness  of  the  Jewish  intellect  and  ability,  so  gloriously 
demonstrated  by  the  large  number  of  our  successful  merchants,  finan- 
ciers, artists,  statesmen,  or  even  politicians;  to  "point  with  pride" — to 
borrow  a  favorite  phrase  of  our  great  after-dinner  orators  and  political 
aspirants — to  the  great  men  that  come  from  "our  people,"  gracing  the 
pages  of  modern  history,  our  Rothschilds,  Bleichroders,  Mocattos  and 
Belmonts;  our  Disraelis,  Cremieaux  and  Laskers,  our  Mayerbeers, 
Mendelssohns,  Rubinsteins  and  Offenbachs,  our  Rachels,  Davisons, 
Barnais  and  Sarah  Bernhardts — not  to  mention  the  innumerable 
host  of  famous  Jewish  chess-players,  billiardists,  dancers  and  ward-poli- 
ticians— to  hold  these  up  as  the  types  of  Israel's  genius  and  the  flowering 
of  our  millennial  historical  career,  is  a  most  sorrowful  misinterpretation  of 
the  grandest  and  holiest  mission,  of  the  noblest  and  loftiest  purpose 
that  has  ever  been  conceived  by  any  nation  on  the  earth  !  All  these 
worldly  achievements  may  be  very  desirable,  but  they  are  of  secondary 
importance.  Israel  shall  not  exclude  himself  from  the  practical  life  of 
the  nations,  but  shall  remain  in  close  contact  with  all  tha^t  concerns  the 
welfare  of  the  people  with  whom  he  shares  a  common  political  life;  but 
his  true,  his  higher  mission,  is  to  be  a  prophet  of  God,  to  exemplify  in 
his  domestic  relations,  in  his  social  intercourse,  in  his  religious  associa- 
tions and  intellectual  labors,  the  spirit  that  animated  the  prophets  of  old, 
the  spirit  that  breathes  through  the  Mosaic  legislation,  aiming  to  tone 
down  the  harsh  distinctions  of  wealth  and  poverty,  to  inspire  with  the 
fervor  of  his  enthusiasm  the  moral  endeavor  of  the  age,  to  clarify 

38 


through  the  purity  of  his  faith,  and  the  unselfish  devotion  of  his  life  to 
humanity's  highest  tasks,  the  faith  of  mankind  in  the  One,  Eternal  God 
of  Israel,  the  Father  of  all  men. 

6.  If  this  be  our  mission  now,  as  it  has  ever  been  in  the  past,  the 
question  which  the  Day  of  Atonement  puts  to  us  is  :  "Have  you  been 
true  to  your  mission?"  And  the  answer  comes  back:  We  have  not ! 
We  have  been  true  to  our  material  interests,  but  false  to  our  divine  trust. 
We  have  striven  to  accumulate  wealth  at  the  cost  of  our  religious  and 
intellectual  life.  We  have  sacrificed  the  soul  for  the  body,  the  end  for 
the  means  ;  we  have  given  God  for  Baal  !  From  our  houses  we  have 
banished  the  faith  of  our  fathers  ;  with  our  own  hands  we  have  broken 
down  the  altars  of  devotion,  and  brought  our  children  up  in  ignorance  of 
Israel's  great  truths.  We  have  sold  our  Sabbaths  and  our  holidays,  and 
bartered  away  the  rest  of  the  body  and  the  peace  of  the  mind.  To  our 
sons  and  daughters  we  have  set  the  example  of  cold  indifference  or 
stupid  sneering  at  the  holiest  and  most  venerable  forms  of  our  ancestral 
faith,  and  now  we  wonder  why  the  heaven  of  our  spiritual  life  is  closed  and 
the  ground  of  our  religious  activity  is  dry  and  barren  ;  why  our  prayers 
are  without  devotion,  our  services  without  uplifting  inspiration  ;  why  our 
children  turn  away  from  our  sanctuaries  to  seek  not  a  truer  faith,  but 
the  enchanting  worship  of  Baal  and  Astarte  —  wealth  and  pleasure! 

If  we  are  not  true-hearted  and  sincere  in  our  convictions,  if  we  our- 
selves are  halting  between  two  opinions,  how  can  we  call  down  the 
heavenly  fire  of  true  faith  upon  the  souls  of  our  children  ?  That  we  may 
be  better  able  to  fulfill  our  mission,  God  has  endowed  us  with  wonderful 
faculties  and  abilities,  which  have  made  us  proverbial  ;  he  has  given  us 
greater  vitality,  to  survive  the  storms  of  hatred  and  persecution  ;  wealth 
and  wisdom,  to  emulate  in  the  solution  of  the  greatest  problems  of 
mankind.  What  use  have  we  made  of  these  faculties  and  endowments  ? 
Have  our  sacrifices  in  behalf  of  toiling  and  suffering  humanity,  in  behalf 
of  the  ignorant  who  are  striving  for  light,  the  down-trodden  who  are 
yearning  for  liberty,  the  poverty,  misery  and  vice  stalking  in  our  streets 
—  have  our  sacrifices  for  all  these  things  been  commensurate  with  our 
means  ?  What  have  we  done  for  the  honor  of  Israel,  for  the  strength- 

39 


ening  of  our  faith,  the  spreading  of  our  truths,  the  sanctification  of  God's 
name  among  the  nations,  that  through  our  actions  we  may  kill  the  hydra- 
headed  monster  of  prejudice  and  race-hatred  still  prevailing  against  the 
descendants  of  Abraham  ?  Where  are  the  Jewish  libraries,  high  schools, 
seminaries  and  universities,  established  by  our  Jewish  Astors  and  Van- 
derbilts  ?  How  piteously  poor  do  the  few  attempts  at  a  larger  humani- 
tarian work  look  in  comparison  with  our  wealth  and  numbers  in  this 
country.  I  mention  with  due  respect  the  praise-worthy  efforts  made 
by  collective  bodies  and  by  some  large-hearted  individual  men  and 
women  —  our  asylums  and  hospitals,  which  must  live  from  hand  to 
mouth,  our  theological  seminary  in  Cincinnati,  which  ekes  out  a  preca- 
rious existence,  the  manual  training  school  in  this  city,  the  royal  char- 
ities of  Mr.  Jacob  Schiff,  of  New  York,  and  last,  but  not  least,  the  blessed 
work  of  the  "Society  for  the  Education  of  Jewish  Orphans,"  created  by 
the  munificence  of  Mrs.  Elisa  Frank  in  our  midst,  who  thereby  has  set  a 
noble  example  of  the  true  uses  of  wealth. 

But  I  ask  you,  is  this  sufficient  ?  Should  not  a  city  like  this  possess 
a  Jewish  library,  offering  ample  information  as  well  as  living  instruction,  in 
the  shape  of  lecture  courses  on  the  most  vital  questions  of  Israelitish  life  ? 
Should  not  a  Jewish  community  like  this  provide  an  institution  where  our 
daughters  may  receive  as  thorough  and  classical  an  education  as  in  the 
best  and  most  fashionable  seminaries  in  the  land,  with  the  additional  bene- 
fit of  Jewish  religious  influence,  and  not  leave  the  task  of  moulding  the 
heart  and  mind  of  the  wives  and  mothers  of  the  coming  generation,  to  the 
quiet  proselytizing  efforts  of  Catholic  and  Methodist  schools?  - 

Nor  should  we  overlook  the  dangers  threatening  the  honor  and  faith 
of  Israel  in  connection  with  the  increasing  immigration  of  brethren  from 
lands  of  barbarism,  political  misrule,  and  religious  darkness.  If  Christian 
associations  go  to  the  trcjuble  of  establishing  missionary  schools  among 
them,  shall  not  we,  who  are  of  their  flesh  and  blood,  take  a  warmer 
interest  in  their  moral  and  intellectual  welfare,  and  by  patient  toil,  by 
kindly  and  brotherly  treatment,  win  their  confidence,  their  implicit  trust, 
and  raise  them  up  to  that  level  of  American  citizenship  on  which  we 
stand  ? 

40 


/.  Yes,  ignorance,  intellectual  and  spiritual  torpitude,  is  the  evil 
which  besets  modern  Israel;  the  Baal  against  whom  we  must  fight  with  the 
weapons  of  the  ancient  prophets,  with  the  weapons  of  the  spirit,  the  weap- 
ons of  truth,  sincerity  and  faithfulness  to  principle.  Step  up  to  your  duty, 
ye  leaders  in  Israel,  you  fathers  and  mothers,  build  up  the  altar  of  your 
faith,  put  the  fragments  of  the  religion  of  your  childhood  together,  and 
place  upon  the  rebuilt  altar  the  sacrifice  of  your  devotion,  your  love,  and 
see  whether  the  true  God  of  our  fathers  will  not  accept  your  offerings  and 
respond  with  the  heavenly  flame  of  enthusiasm  kindling  the  hearts  of  our 
children  for  the  higher,  the  deviner  life  of  Israel  !  Witness  the  miracle 
which  sincere  faith  can  perform  before  our  eyes.  If  this  Day  is  a  true 
prophet  of  God  it  will  not  leave  us  ere  we  shall  have  decided  for  ourselves 
whether  we  shall  serve  Adonay,  the  God  of  our  fathers,  the  God  of  truth, 
and  right,  and  duty,  or  whether  we  shall  continue  to  follow  Baal,  the 
idol  of  selfishness,  pleasure,  mental  and  moral  indolence,  pride,  ignorance 
and  stubborness.  Behold,  long  enough  have  we  prayed  to  our  idols  to 
open  for  us  the  heaven  of  happiness  and  to  shower  upon  us  the  blessing 
of  true  religion.  Long  enough  have  we  followed  after  every  fashion  and 
worshiped  at  the  altars  of  every  new  theory :  Atheism,  materialism, 
agnosticism — they  have  not  responded  to  our  call,  they  have  not  answered 
the  soul's  cry  for  the  God  of  truth.  But  now,  this  day  comes  near  to  us, 
like  the  prophet  Elijah  to  misguided  Israel  of  old,  and  with  the  words  of 
his  prayer  it  thrills  our  souls  with  awe  and  reverence.  In  tones  that 
will  forever  ring  through  the  ages,  piercing  the  ears  of  indifference  and 
arousing  the  hearts  of  the  faithless  to  their  duty,  it  cries:  "O  Eternal, 
God  of  Abraham,  Isaac  and  Israel,  let  it  be  known  this  day  that  thou 
art  God  in  Israel,  and  that  I  am  thy  servant,  and  that  I  have  done  all 
those  things  at  Thy  word.  Answer  me,  O  Eternal,  answer  me,  that  this 
people  may  know,  that  thou  Adonay  art  God,  and  do  thou  turn  their 
heart  back  again  !"  Touched  by  the  spark  of  faith,  rekindled  by  the 
heavenly  fire,  we  cry  out  with  penitent  Israel  of  old,  even  as  we  shall 
once  utter  with  our  last  breath:  "Adonay  ha-Elohim—  The  Eternal,  he  is 
God  ;  the  Eternal  he  is  God  !"  With  this  prayer  and  with  this  answer  we 
dedicate  and  consecrate  ourselves  anew  to  the  service  of  the  God  of  our 
fathers,  to  the  divine  mission  of  Israel,  to  be  the  Elijah  of  humanity. 

41  Amen. 


171  6£ 


u    *^ 


